Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

I was out in the garden today playing with the neighbour’s cat, when I had that sudden feeling I was being watched – and as I instinctively looked up I locked eyes with our resident owl (a Little Owl). He’s not easy to spot as he blends in so well to the cliff – but I looked at him straight away. It’s weird how we have that instinct and ability. I pretended I wasn’t interested in him, as he’s quite shy, and slowly made my way inside to get my camera. Quietly came back out and played with the cat again (see I’m not going to point a big weapon at you). Got the lens up, fired a few shots, then thought, heck I’m going to get closer. Got closer, and then decided, to try and have a conversation. “Hello Owly”. Nah, not having any of that, he took off. We could later see him again when we were out on our deck – he was busy observing us having dinner. He keeps us awake at night sometimes with his (or her) calls and I had to explain to one of our new neighbours that the noise at night was not a little girl screaming outside, but in fact an owl. This type of owl is originally from Germany and was introduced to New Zealand to help control some of the introduced birds. You can learn more about the Little Owl online at http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/little-owl