So I got lucky.  Yes, you would have to, to see this nocturnal beauty on a daytime roost.  The Brown Wood Owl Strix leptogrammica is locally common in the edge of dense lowland forests.  On a night drive around the roads of Tabin Wildlife Reserve, consider yourself to be very unlucky if you don’t see this bird.  Of course in the bright illumination of the spot light, darker birds might appear to be pale.