Mr. Owl in a tree at our farm today. You may have to turn your volume up…he is rather quiet and shy…especially in the daytime with a camera in his face.

Owls are a bit of a different creature. They are very busy at night and very quiet in the day. Owls can make quite a lot of noise if you happen to be visiting out in the country. Just what animals are the owls calling to and what are they saying? Owls worry the bald eagles with little eaglets in a nest because of the way they can easily and silently swoop down. They either scare away or bring the coyotes closer to a tree. The curiosity of an owl’s hooting can push a coyote’s curiosity to the max. Eventually, the coyotes will flee from the owl. Or so people say out in the country. An owl can easily push my curiosity too. I have always been totally fascinated by owls. They are just sort of unusually weird…well, in a good sort of way.

It is true. We all have some weird trait that only someone with the same weird trait can understand. Finding the specific someone who has that trait can be a complex endeavor. And maybe it is not always a positive endeavor. According to Dr. Seuss, weird ones should join up with other weird ones and call it love. Not sure about that. I just know that I truly love owls and I am fascinated by their sounds in the night. Therefore…according to Dr. Seuss…I must be weird like the owl. Mutual weirdness. News flash for Dr. Seuss: my husband is not weird at all. He is really quite calm and normal. Just one weird person around here!

Mr. Owl minding his own business and just sitting in the tree.

 I acquired Mr. Owl when my husband found him for sale in the Halloween aisle of a nearby “we have everything you need and some things that you didn’t know that you really need” type store. I had no idea that I needed Mr. Owl, but I was so excited to own him.

Note to WordPress blogger “Chicken Grandma”:

This is the very important “Mr. Owl” that your husband would like! We might could work out a trade or just a “husband’s junk store find” visitation schedule! I honestly and desperately need your “Pete the Pirate”!

Mr. Owl became a permanent resident in my classroom. I was teaching Third Grade when he arrived and every grade down to Kindergarten and Pre-Kindergaten during his residency. Every child…no matter what age…were very fascinated by our pet owl!

Did I mention that he was very fake, but very close to being real to the children?! 

Each year, Mr. Owl was the catalyst for many exciting classroom science lessons. Our owl study was very similar to the weeks and weeks that we studied the Bald Eagles in Decorah, Iowa. Please see my August 24th post titled Learning About Eagles. Amazing!…the children always left for summer vacation with a love of learning about eagles and owls and science! And they learned lots of facts and so did I! Such a fun classroom time!

An excellent website named Science Kids, Fun Science & Technology for Kids (sciencekids.co.nz) provides a wealth of information for classrooms. From this website, we began our study with the following owl facts:

1. There are around 200 different owl species.

2. Owls are active at night (noctornal).

3. A group of owls is called a parliament.

4. Most owls hunt insects, small mammals and other       birds.

5. Some owl species hunt fish.

6. Owls have powerful talons (claws) which help them catch and kill prey.

7. Owls have large eyes and a flat face.

8. Owls can turn their heads as much as 270 degrees

9. Owls are farsighted, meaning they can’t see things close to their eyes clearly.

10. Owls are virtually silent in flight compared to other birds of prey.

11. The color of owl’s feathers helps them blend into their environment (camouflage).

12. Barn owls can be recognized by their heart shaped face.

As we studied owls, Mr. Owl stayed quietly in his place on a shelf at the front of my classroom. For most of the years, he remained silent unless someone punched the small “sound” button attached to his right talon. It was a rule that Mr. Owl did not want to be touched, so this rarely happened. He was quiet UNTIL THIS YEAR! During our circle time when I was teaching a lesson or reading a book to the children, Mr. Owl would suddenly start hooting! All of the children would be sitting on the floor in front of me. He was obviously getting tired of his perch!

Which owl is real? See the story and picture in The Huffington Post.

Mr. Owl was also ready to retire! He now lives at our farm. He did make a suddenly very loud appearance during Thanksgiving! Sometimes Mr. Owl cannot keep quiet! And then he decided to quietly flee away!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/flee/