March 7-11 is Festival of Owls Week. These wise old birds are amazing to watch – and hear… hold your ears! I used to hear these barn owls often when I stayed with my grandparents. If you don’t know what it is, it sounds downright creepy. If you think owls just say WHO… WHO… then you’ve never heard a barn owl.
Barn owls don’t usually live long lives. In North America the oldest known barn owl in the wild lived to be 11 years old. In Holland, a wild barn owl lived to be 17 years old. In England, a captive female barn owl was retired from breeding at 25 years old.
Now we hear the WHO… WHO from the eagle owl. Can you believe those eyes? They are absolutely gorgeous and captivating.
The Eurasian eagle owl lives in mountain regions and other relatively remote places. It’s a nocturnal predator, hunting for small mammals but also birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and large insects.
And yesterday, I saw this post on twitter: https://twitter.com/planetepics
I don’t know who specifically came home to find this little cutie, but I just had to share this.
Enjoy this wonderful poem by Lucinda Berry Hill.
Many people in the 1970’s collected all things owls. I also knew some who collected elephants (something about luck in the home) – but owls represent wisdom. For fun, I wondered how many photographs of owls I could find on common everyday things. Here’s what I came up with:
How about owl origami? Give it a try – it’s really fun!
http://www.origami-fun.com/origami-owl.html
We all agree that owls are cute – albeit scary… sharp beaks, talons and stares with no blinks… don’t you wonder what they’re thinking? Maybe we really don’t want to know. 🙂
