The Mystery of the Feather

As we walked along the Indus, I happened to spy a large floating object bobbing in the water by the bank. I approached it. It appeared to be a feather of some sort. It was large. Oh, so large. It was golden brown with dark spotted freckles on its edges. The bank was squishy with the dark grey silt. My boots sank right into them. None the less, the bobbing feather hypnotised my every sense. It had to be retrieved! It had to be! How, oh how could I let it lay there? “Come get me, you clumsy footed child, come get me.”, it seemed to whisper to me. Short of luring me with psychedelic eyes, it did all it could. So down I went on my hands and knees and boots. No, literally, down I went, slowly sinking into that thick silt. I reached out, the feather was moving away. It was hanging onto the bank-moss by merely a tether. No, really, a tether. But KARPOW! I grabbed the blasted, blooming fellow and rose to my feet holding it up victoriously. 

This feather was carefully weaved into the holey side pocket of my bag by the skilful Tamsinle. There it stayed, fluttering in the breeze and getting extremely worn out as we continued our trek. It looked so much like a kestrel’s feather- but it was far too big. A golden eagle? But it wasn’t dark enough. We put that down as a maybe. The question puzzled me. The book of birds was back at the office and I wouldn’t see it for another two days.  Ho Hum was what I felt.

The next day, while I sat on the ridgeline watching Tamsinle set up the camera, a shepherd came by. He asked me where I found that feather. I said I found it floating in the Indus. He then told me that it’s an extremely rare feather to have and that it belonged to the Uk-pa. He said it’s a lucky omen and that this bird is like a giant crow that you see only at night. Not knowing which bird the Uk-pa is, this extra bit of information perplexed me even more. 

On meeting Jigmetle, the only Ladakhi of the three of us, I asked him which bird the Uk-pa is. He said it is an owl. AN OWL! Of course! Which other bird would be nocturnal? I felt silly for not having thought of that. But an owl of such proportions? I was supremely curious by now.

When we got back to the office, I compared the description of the owls listed in the book to the feather’s size and colour and finally hit upon which bird it was from. *PUM PUM PUM* (dramatic pause).... THE EAGLE OWL!

Here’s the description from the book:

Eurasian Eagle Owl (bubo bubo)

Local name: Ugpa, Uk-pa (all owls)

Alternate names: Nothern-, Indian-, Eagle Owl

Size: L 56-66cm, WS 180cm

Description: A large stocky solitary owl with pale, brownish-grey upperparts heavily streaked with dark-brown black and whitish mottled, perfectly matching with the rocky surroundings. The underparts are whitish, heavily barred rufous from breast to under tail coverts and greyish-white from chin to upper breast, boldly streaked with black. The prominent plain facial disc is pale grey, encompassed by darker grey and topped with conspicuous blackish ear tufts (horns). Underwings are plain buff white, strongly barred with brown, ending in dark brown wing tips (hands), upperwings (in flight) show characteristic buff-brown primaries, heavily banded dark brown. The strong bill is greenish black to black, the eyes orange red and the legs feathered to the base of powerful claws. The species feeds on marmots, lamb-sized mammals, wild fowl and fish. Indigestible kill, including bones, hair, feathers, fish scales and teet, is regurgitated in form of a pellet (a pellet was found containing a full leg of a buzzard.) the sexes are alike though the female appears a little larger; they weigh 2-3kg. Juveniles are darker, more rufous brown buff, with tightly barred underparts, an inconspicuous facial disk and without the horns.

Now the book also speaks of its call, breeding, habitat and behaviour, status and distribution, typical areas of encounter and subspecies. But keying all that in is going to take quite a while. If any of you are very keen to know, leave me a note on this post and I’ll put it up.

Here’s a picture off google of the bird:

And here is the mighty feather.

(It hunts lamb-sized mammals! Holy shit!)