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Nick Tennick

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Nick has always loved the outdoors and never turns down an opportunity for an adventure. After finishing high school in Johannesburg, where he grew up, Nick spent a gap year in the Zimbabwean bushveld which truly sparked his love for wildlife and conservation ...

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23 Comments

on In Search of the Mysterious Owls of Londolozi

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Senior Digital Ranger

Pearl-spotted & Scops are my 2 favortiies. Loved the sounds of the scops when we were there. Hadd one in our tree for a couple nights. It was magical!

Hi Sandra ! I agree the Scope owl call is so symbolic of the African Bushveld.

Tell me more about the fatal curse please?

Owls are reviled in many parts of Africa as harbingers of death. In South Africa, many believe that when an owl lands on the roof and hoots, it has been sent by a sangoma, or witch doctor, delivering a fatal curse.

Master Tracker

I am lucky enough to sometimes hear an owl and in Mid-Winter to sometimes see one hunting over the downlands close by.
Lovely creatures , I have been lucky enough to see both a Scop’s owl by my tent and a Pell’s fishing owl whilst in Africa

Hi Ian, wow seeing both of those owl species is really special.

Wonderful images and descriptions, thank you for sharing

Thank you Karen

I’m a big fan of owls, so thanks for that, Nick. I’ve seen very few, despite all my visits, so I was very happy last November (on my 14th visit!) to have a great sighting of a Verreaux eagle owl . It was shortly before our sundowners, so still reasonably light, and we watched it fly back and forth between a tree and a patch of ground close by, investigating it for food. Brilliant!

Amazing story Suzanne! thanks for sharing. Its particularly awesome that you got to see one with the sun sill up and in daylight.

Great article on owls, Nick. And the photos are amazing.
I love seeing owls. At home, in Switzerland you never or nearly never see any.
Luckily I have seen lots of owls on safari, also at Londolozi, I think even on every trip.
I loved seeing the Southern White faced owl in the southern area of Londolozi one evening. Really great.

Seeing an owl in Southern California is also a rare sight!! And an equally as exciting sighting! Love owls…thanks for sharing so many different species.

Thanks Anita! Im glad you enjoyed the blog

Nick the owls are one of my favorite birds. We had the Spotted Eagle Owl in our tree where we stayed for seventeen years. They became quite tame and even had there chick’s in the box that my husband made for them. Some days they would sit openly so that we could see them, at dusk they would start to operate and go hunting. Sometimes during the night they would come and sit on our house roof and then they would call each other. Beautiful birds and can watch them forever.

I loved seeing and learning about all the owls at Londolozi. I’ve been lucky enough to see a few of them, Verreaux’s Eagle Owl being my favorite, with those wonderful pink eyelids. But I’d sure like to see more during my upcoming visit in the Spring!

Nick, great blog and pictures. Owls are some of the best predators in the animal world. They are also one of the stealthiest creatures in the world and one of the most beautiful and favorite birds of mine.

Thanks Nick for this interesting and informative post. I had no idea that there was such a variety of owls within Londolozi. I’ve managed to view the Verraux’s Eagle Owl and Spotted Eagle Owls during night drives but have yet to spot the others. For the untrained eye, spotting the smaller owls such as the Spotted Pearl Owl can be difficult even though they’re active during the day. By the way, all of your images are fantastic accompanying your article.

Thanks Denise! Yes there are many more species to be seen on the reserve. You do have to have a little bit of luck on your side to see the smaller species and the nocturnal ones, which are very dormant during the daytime hours.

Hi, I miss the songs of owlets and scops owls at night all around, year by year I could hear them less and less, now it seems they disappeared… green area with high trees are getting rare and so the smaller owls that are usual visitors of cities and towns borders can’t be detected any longer. In the woodland there are large owls barn owl as well. I like a lot all the species you t write about, especially Marsh Owl, so different from any other I know, and of course the smallest, owlets and scops owl…

Hi Nick, I just adore owls. I love hearing two of the species we have here: the great horned owl and barred owl. The Southern white faced owl is absolutely striking. And I didn’t know about the false eyes on the back of the pearl-spotted owlet. Thank you for including that image so we could see them. 🦉

Absolutely love owls, and have been privileged to see the Eagle Owl, White Faced, Scops and others at Londolozi. Hoping we are lucky enough to see owls when we return in July

The pics are awesome! That southern white-faced owl is gorgeous. Great camera work. When I visited Londolozi in November of 2021, Matt was our guide and we saw four or five Marsh Owls in an area of the southwestern grasslands. It had been raining all week and they just kept exploding from the grass, as we searched for cheetah. We did finally find the cheetah, but I found the surprise of owls in the grasslands, instead of the deep forests, a huge plus.

Hi Patrick, thanks for the comment as well as sharing your story of the Marsh owl sighting. That is a very rare sighting indeed.

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