Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Yesterday, we had an
argument/fight again. I hate those, but, sadly, it seems to me that the main
way that anything changes in our family is through conflict, which brings us to
arguments slash fights. I hate those, but they are unavoidable and necessary.
Pity that COVID-19 made everything worse. What next?
As we are starting to finish our bird of prey talk, let us
turn to owls instead. There are two types of owls – the ‘true’ owls and the
barn owls. The latter differ from the true owls by coloration, and their ‘facial
disk’, (if you ever saw an owl, any owl, on a photo, you would know what we are
talking about), is proportionally larger and whiter than that of a ‘true’ owl. In
addition, the barn owls and their relatives are generally paler than their
cousins are, and finally, they have no ‘horns’.
…The horns, of course, as tufts of feathers that grow on
heads of such different owl species as the screech owl, the long-horned owl,
and the great horned owl, among others. Sometimes they are barely noticeable,
as they are in case of the short-horned owl, or even more so – in case of the
snowy owl, but they can be there. Most scientists, (ornithologists and
otherwise) agree, that these tufts serve no practical purpose, but are more of
a decorative feature on those owls. Maybe it helps them in courting each
other?.. The point is that no member of the barn owl family has those tufts,
but some ‘true’ owls do. What next?
Owls swallow their smaller prey whole, and spit up what they
cannot digest as pellets. Some other birds do that as well, from hawks to the
nightjars, (also known as nighthawks, but they are completely separate birds
from the birds of prey), but it still isn’t entirely certain as to just who are
the owls’ relatives? In addition, the modern classification revision does not
make it any better, either.
…Yes, there was a revision of avian taxonomy sometime in the
past, (unlike the mammal, which appears to be a more modern development). I
missed it, and so I’m not going to dwell upon it; basically, the point is that
the owls’ similarity to hawks, falcons, eagles, vultures and so on is only
superficial and practically skin-deep – the two groups of birds are able to
co-exist, but only because the owls are nocturnal. Yes, they can see during the
day, but they are not doing as well during that time, as the other birds’ mob
them, and in some case – as in cases of the corvids – those birds themselves
can be quite big. Anything else?
Here is a piece of original fiction to round up today’s
entry instead. I hope that you will enjoy it:
Once upon a time, when a red fox and a hare were busy with
an eagle owl, a different bird, a great grey owl, was sitting on a different
tree at a different spot where the forest met the open field, and it too was
busy hunting.
Any owl is Meta - they got soft feathers, silent wings that
make no noise whatsoever; their talons are twisted and sharp- no one can escape
from them, not a mouse, not a squirrel, not a sleeping bird. This particular
great grey owl was hunting mice.
...It is still late winter and mice are hidden from sight by
a thick layer of snow, but an owl’s hearing is sharp enough to penetrate it,
and the great grey owl has specifically long legs to reach through the snow.
There! There a mouse is scurrying. The owl spread its’ wings and launched a
spectacular aerial attack right through the snow.
The snow exploded. This particular mouse made its’ winter
home in a bear’s den, and the owl, unwittingly, scored a perfect hit on the
bear’s nose. (It was hard to reach, but those long legs and sharp talons are
good for something).
The still mostly asleep bear was not amused. With one shake
of its’ massive head it was free, with one snap of its’ huge jaws it snapped
the owl up and sank back beneath the snow to wait for the proper end of winter.
The end.
PS: Oh, and the mouse was in another corner of the den,
sleeping its’ own nap in its’ own home, lined with the bear’s fur because it
was small enough to get away with this - but that is another story.
End
This is it for now. See you all soon! Comments? Criticisms?
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