The pleasures of cycling - and spotted owlets

In a while, I'll take my cycle out and go buy cards for my nieces. One of the many pluses of moving to Mysore. It's cool and peaceful enough to cycle around - burn calories AND save petrol, not to mention the fun of cruising down the road. And - ooh- cycling back up.
We see lots of birds around home, which is on a fairly busy road. Last year, when we first moved here, we were startled by loud screeching and other assorted calls, on the two trees outside our home. Peering into the dark with torches accomplished nothing. They used to start around midnight, and I'd wake up bleary eyed from holding a microphone out the window to record their calls at 1 a.m. Then somebody identified the calls as those of the spotted owlets. Excitement! As soon as the calls started, we'd tumble out of bed and grab torches, but the birds remained unspottable. Once, alone at home, I was shining my torch into branches at 2 a.m. when the local beat police appeared. I didn't know the kannada word for owls, and felt unequal to explaining to them why I was doing what I was doing, and retreated hastily to bed.
When we finally spotted the small (~ pigeon sized), really cute owlets, they bobbed and peered at us while we peered back eagerly. Now we're old acquaintances and their screechings leave us unmoved.
More about our local birds, tomorrow.