Matt Sewell - Owls: Our Most Charming Bird

CONTENTS

Matts charming book looks at our favorite nocturnal, nonchalant bird of prey: the owl. Wide-eyed in the still of night. Silent in flight. A strange rotating head. Imperious and haughty. Its not surprising the mysterious owl has meddled with peoples minds. Through myth and folklore, weve managed to lay some peculiar extra baggage on these all-seeing, all-knowing creatures over the years. Holding vigils for virgins? Harbingers of horror? Wizards wingmen? Or simply a marvellous niche invention for the afterhours?

Whatever they are up to, owls are a personal favorite of mine and my band, British Sea Power. On stage, we often employ decoy Long-Eared Owls, perching them on tree branches. They watch over us, staring out into the audience, giving us some added primeval stage presence. The owls are watching yoooouuu-ooooo.

Martin Noble

INTRODUCTION

Its simple: everybody loves owls! They are all things for all men, women and children. Owls are tough, wise, spooky, scary, majestic, austere, spiritual, easy to draw, inspirational, and cute.

In a work of wonder, every family of owl has evolved totemic skills for survival in habitats around the globethe lush woodlands of Europe, mountainside glades of the Himalayas, savannahs of Africa, dust bowls of the Americas, and the equatorial tropical rainforests.

However we like to depict the owlcreepy and haunting, or majestic and beautifultheir singularity in the animal kingdom and their unflinching colonization of our Earth is simply breathtaking.

And that is why I love owls.

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

Tyto alba

Easily one of the most beautiful, elegant and enigmatic of all animals, never mind owls, the Barn Owl is transcendent to view in the wild: a shining pure illumination with dark, unfathomably deep eyes.

They were not always viewed so kindly, and so the legend of owls as cursed creatures, ill-fated harbingers of destruction, was born from this spectral bird, whose call is a bloodcurdling shriek that could strip the fingernails from all those unfortunate enough to meet it. Superstitious folks would often nail a wingor even a whole Barn Owlto a barn door to keep out all witchery and evil doings, so feared and ominous were these owls.

But however they got their name, Barn Owls are a natural wonder. They are found all around the world, moving with silent wingbeats, eyeing you with a face you could never forget.

Eurasian Pygmy Owl