Who is as wise as an owl? We can tell who are not — large sections of humankind who have taken Hedwigs and Plops out of their fantastic lands and reduced them to props in magic and sorcery. When we chanced upon a nature walk conceived around the curious case of the forest owlet, whose alleged extinction and re-emergence is said to have the very ingredients of a murder mystery novel, a teensy part of our brains did link the mystification to folklore. Prachi Galange from Vanvasm, an ecological tour agency, dispels our doubts.