Pocket-Sized Owl Babies Mark First Sighting For Rare Species In Over 100 Years

Pocket-Sized Owl Babies Mark First Sighting For Rare Species In Over 100 Years

Pocket-Sized Owl Babies Mark First Sighting For Rare Species In Over 100 Years In May, nature photographer and ornithologist Tomasz Sczansny was walking through Poland’s Upper Silesia region when he heard a male Eurasian scops owl yelling out “with a territorial voice.”  When he returned the next night, the same owl sounded off again.  It’s an occurrence others might dismiss as innocuous, but the sound took Sczansny by surprise. Although Eurasian scops owls have a wide range across Europe, they are incredibly rare in Poland.  In fact, no breeding activity had been confirmed for the species within the country’s borders for over a century.  “Initially, we were very skeptical about the possibility of breeding,” Sczansny and his peer Slawek Rubacha noted in a shared Facebook post for Poland’s Stowarzyszenie Ochrony Sów Owl Conservation Association. “This year's spring was not favorable to this species — there were quite low temperatures, and it rained often.”  But Rubacha and Sczansny return…