Tuhla, SAANR

This is one of the 10 Scops Owls found roosting at Tuhla in SAANR on 18 Ocotber 2006 by the keen eyes of Khaled Al-Nasrallah and shown to Mike Pope and Brian Foster. All 10 were initially recorded as European Scops Owls, regarded as regular passage migrants and this was the only one photographed by Mike Pope. A wintering Scops Owl at Green Island on 6 January 2007 raised possibilities of Striated Scops Owl, which it was not. The photograph of the Tuhla Owl was re-scrutinised and has now been positively identified and accepted as the first Kuwait record of Striated Scops Owl. Sadly, the identification of other 9 remain unknown