On June 19, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. An owl with its owlets lives next to the administrative building of the traffic police department of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee's Internal Affairs Directorate, the head of the department, Sergey Motorenyok, told a BELTA correspondent. Legends abound about the wisdom of this bird. This owl, too, has confirmed its reputation for being both intelligent and far-sighted. It made its home in an abandoned magpie's nest on a very tall fir tree directly opposite the windows of the traffic police chief, thereby ensuring high patronage and safety for itself and its young. Sergey Motorenyok, a lover and connoisseur of wildlife, treats his unusual neighbours with great sympathy, but his duties as head of the traffic police department do not allow him to observe the birds from the window for long. However, the fact that the owlets have already flown from the nest and are now testing various flight speeds around their home nest has not gone unnoticed. "No violations have been detected so far," he joked. Professional observation of the "police" owls has been undertaken by ornithologists from the biology faculty of Vitebsk State University named after P. Masherov. They have ringed the owl and its young. By the way, seeing owls in Vitebsk is not such a rarity. A BELTA correspondent also witnessed a forest dweller calmly sitting on a fir tree in the city centre in the early evening. -0-

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