Sleepy owl musings…

Fathoming the universe, yet still baffled by dreams, such are the vicissitudes of life… the more we know, more the contradictions… sleeping birds being a case in point… for a species used to crumbling into that suspended space of consciousness for hours, there a tinge of envy as one sees the avifauna managing with just minutes, and that too while managing to keep a tab on the world that’s forever awake… unihemispheric slow-wave sleep they call it, one half of the brain sleeping while the other keeps guard… one wonders if its even ‘sleep’, for they don’t even lose muscle memory, snoozing as they fly, swim, hang or perch… nor do they lose the ability to stay wary of predators or regulating body temperature… evolution went off on another tangent altogether here…

Thus one pondered, looking at this brown fish owl through the bins… the cavity in the tree seemed like a nice little nook for a bird to inhabit, but it wasn’t until we zoomed in on the photo that we were able to discern the owl with its quintessential not-too-amused gaze, yellow eyes as bright as the morning even while half shut… ’twas prime real estate this tree, overlooking a canal flush with water (and prey), no need to resort to carrions here… raising its head a little bit to evaluate the danger, it settled down again, the comfort of dusk still quite a distance away… for all its eccentricities and deviation from the normal avian physiology, it is still considered a good omen… a harbinger of wealth and prosperity… a repository of wisdom, exuding calm and patience… the inability of philosophy to contemplate upon self-consciousness and reflection together… there’s so much more than meets the eye when it comes to the raptor of the night…

Musing on a Brown fish owl, Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh