It was the great birding mystery of 2012. The clues? Koi carcasses in the garden, just the heads eaten. A cinnamon feather. And a glimpse of owl, making off into the night... A rookie might guess a Pel’s fishing owl (left), but this was Newlands, Cape Town, and the bird is rare enough in far northern KZN and Limpopo. Still, Trevor Hardaker, chair of the South African Rarities Committee, himself ticked the bird. The owl made a brief appearance at Constantia’s Spanish Consulate, then it was gone. Until three-and-a-half years later, when Newlands residents Jo-Anne and Sean Duggan, whose garden the Pel’s first frequented in 2012, realised koi and large goldfish were again missing from their ponds. They suspected otters because, as Jo-Anne said, ‘Who would expect to see a…
