I don’t remember the number offhand, but I expected Buffy to fair better, but I think a number of its fans have dropped off Lemmy or the community.

White Face seemed ready to steamroll everyone, which surprised me, as I don’t get too much WFS content to keep the momentum high compared to some others.

I love the surprises, and I’m glad we’ve had different winners both times so far. I wouldn’t be upset if one won twice, but I’d personally prefer not to have the same one win back to back. My goal is to get you guys excited about new things!

Some are always going to be more popular, but I wouldn’t want this place to just be the same 3 owls every day. With 250 to choose from, there’s gotta be a few more I can get you all pumped up about! 😁

Say what you will, he would have put 110% into finding where this owl came from in Andy asked him. 😁

The Burrowing Owl people have been very passionate and vocally upset both times. They’re perennially favorites, much like the love the Snowy gets, but the little guys haven’t been able to get that final push over the top. They certainly have what it takes though!

Great question!

I haven’t encountered what looks to be called “fright molt” at all yet in my “studies” and this blog post from Suffolk Owl Sanctuary describes owls as being very slow molters. The only type of exception that I’ve seen is with Screech Owls dropping most of their head feathers, which don’t affect flight near as much as other big bald patches would, resulting in situations like our friend Weird Alice where they look like they were treated a bit roughly, but it’s basically just a bad haircut.

This post from a buzzard blog says fright molt is basically unheard of for raptors. I know I tend to think of agility as something very important to a raptor, and also since they’re also likely more often the aggressor than the victim, it may not be worth it from an evolution standpoint to lose those feathers all at once. I’ll have to keep an eye out for more info.

I will say, I posted an AskLemmy asking about people’s favorite items of clothing and someone said the Cuddl Duds fleece pants. I was in need of some new pajama type bottoms, and I love my Cuddl Duds (not a sponsor) flannel sheets, so I was all, let’s try the pants.

If the owl is as happy with its fuzzy legs as I was during the cool months in those pants, that’s one happy and snug owl!

It really adds that air of credibility. Most owls have that bristley moustache, which is a good start, but a bushy white beard adds that authenticity of being a wise one of the outdoors. It’s not the look of an owl that follows trends, but rather the confidence to be one’s self and pursues their own truth and experiences. 😊

Amazon

RedBubble

This one is equally good.

They’re available a bunch of places, but I didn’t see any from the actual NPS. There’s one site that looks somewhat official, but it is not.

That is amazing! Animals know what they like!

I’ve gone on a bunch of cave tours, and I’ve frequently heard many caves were discovered by cows, as air coming from the openings provided them natural air conditioning!

Shorties always look so amazing. You may not get cool cape flapping noises if it’s made out of silent feathers though! +1 stealth 😁

Aww, you edited it.

He does run with the herd more than I’d prefer, but that’s just how he is.

I’d vote for Joe Bison for president. Love his initiative.

Lol, couldn’t find that, but I did see this one:

I love me some corvids. I’ve built up my relationships with my local clan of Jays from when I was WFH, and we have a bunch of them in the clinic now, along with a crow and a raven.

They’re all wonderful, but I’m still biased toward the owls and raptors.

No matter which Scops I pull out of the bag, it’s always going to look amazing!

Looking at this photo again, it’s as if it selected a tree painted with a mural of itself. 😁

It’s not the size of the brain, it’s how you use it! 🤪

All libraries should have a guardian owl of some sort!

Owls don’t belong all crammed together in post offices anyway. It’s for the best.

Also JKR was fine with having all those male owls play the role of a female owl character back then! 🤔

It’s likely a combination of the two things. It sounds like specific effort was put toward the Barn Owls, but Little Owls are usually considered and indicator species because human development creates numerous advantageous environments for them, but they’re also closer to the negative things we do as well.

This article was a little sparse on specifics I’d like to see, but it is better than the one I saw today saying Saw Whets have people up in alarm about things due to expanded migration but didn’t really say much more than that. Some of these articles feel more like previews for actual articles not yet released…

Eliminating second generation rodenticide, maintaining appropriate habitats, and educating people that would use poisons or have control over land development about the advantages owls can bring are key areas where progress can have huge payoffs. We need to make sure the is both land for owls to hunt and reproduce, and to make sure that food is actually safe to eat. Modern poisons aren’t metabolized the way old ones were, so they accumulate into quantities high enough to hurt the owls. Rodent control in closely populated areas is a valid concern, but that is a specialty of the owls after all.

Any number of tasty things really. Rats, mice, voles, shrews, birds, the occassional unlucky hedgehog or stoat.

Twit twooooooo… Night owls of London 😁