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 returned to the site, hoping for the best. That’s when they spotted an owl in the same territory, with a “completely different voice.”
They had the proof they needed: The male was not alone.
“On June 26, we managed to register two birds for the first time: male and female,” Rubacha and Sczansny noted. “Their behavior was a clear indication that we might be dealing with a nesting pair.”
On July 19, Rubacha and Sczansny returned to the area with a thermal-vision camera and were able to confirm the owls’ breeding activity.
“We were so happy — what's more, we didn't turn off the microphone, so the whole moment was recorded,” they wrote.
“Unfortunately, the material is rather not suitable for publication,” the pair added cheekily in their post.
At dawn, Rubacha and Sczansny returned with a ladder and a camera to peer inside the nest. Alongside the female, they found three chicks, which they estimated to be two to three days old at most.
Unfortunately, when they returned two weeks later to “ring the young” for future identification, only two chicks remained.
Still, their “owl stakeout” in the Polish woods proved to be fruitful. The two chicks — and additional audio recording — marked the first evidence of the Eurasian scops owl reproducing in Poland in over 100 years.
On a broader scale, owl species around the world have been facing decline due to deforestation and habitat loss — dangers that the World Wildlife Fund has been actively combatting, as groups like The Nature Conservancy and the International Owl Center raise awareness for owl conservation.
Although Eurasian scops owls are not listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, they are scarcely seen in Poland.
Reports from 2006 estimated the regional population size to be “very thin,” although new data, like this latest report from the Stowarzyszenie Ochrony Sów Owl Conservation Association, is painting a more optimistic portrait of the owl’s presence in Poland.
“During all the inspections, we collected a lot of information about food, feeding frequency, adult bird behavior, etc,” the ornithologists wrote. “We are sure that these observations will help others with [the future] of this species.”
In an interview with Vectra Publishing, Sczansny explained that every photo he takes is the result of hours of research, careful planning, and a lot of patience.
“The greatest joy in my life comes from observing the incredible spectacle that nature puts on for us,” Sczansny said. “It is my priority, and I have bound my future to it. Photography allows me, even if only to a small extent, to capture the beauty that Mother Nature shows me.”
Note: All quotes have been translated from Polish into English using Google Translate.
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Image via Tomasz Sczansny / Stowarzyszenie Ochrony Sów Owl Conservation Association
