My friend Carolyn found this owl in a car boot sale and sent me a pic:
“It looks quite real,” she says, “but it is made of straw.”
My Ma bought me this wee owl at a fantastic shop in York:
it is a very happy owl.
November is a gloomy month, and curlews are sometimes regarded as a gloomy bird, but I do enjoy seeing large numbers of them at this time of year, feeding in the field behind our flat (we live very near the estuary). I was hoping to add curlews to today’s owls, but this morning saw a heavy frost, and they were gone.
EDIT: two hours later — the frost is lifting and they’re back!
KDD & Co 
I have one of those Japanese owls, or at least one of his friends, as mine has ear tufts. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_k3cq8skVqa4/SE8KjYE1XqI/AAAAAAAAAk0/Hr4zHzY_A6k/s320/owl.JPG
He’s from the branch of that shop in Harrogate, and they called him a “fukurou” or “lucky owl”, although I can’t find the term in common usage elsewhere.
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I heard some great owl calls on Thursday whilst out running at night. They really are fantastic and very magical birds.
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Oh beautiful curlew picture! Thanks for getting my day off to such a good start.
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I too love owls. I love the way they move their head and eyes. I have seen them up close at some local fairs here where people were showing off injured raptors that had been rescued and nursed back to good health. (There are so many different kinds of owls, I know)
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We have an actual real stuffed owl – my partner’s dad got it stuffed in the 1960s and it has been passed on to my nature mad nine year old son. And we have a collection of dissected owl pellets. But then if you have a family member who believes a good day out is a trip to the annual fair of the amateur entomologists society (as my middle child does) then this all comes with the territory. While my life has been much enriched by the knowledge that there is a Dipterist Forum, for example (a place for enthusiasts for things with two wings), I do much prefer the craft versions of the owl. Particular thanks to Jane for the link above.
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Here’s mine “Frieda Brings Home the Bacon”
http://morewgalo.blogspot.com/2008/04/warm-up-continued.html
and this one should be called “the Bacon Eaters”
http://morewgalo.blogspot.com/2008/06/whats-afoot.html
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I’d never thought of curlews as being a gloomy bird, but I suppose their call could sound a bit mournful. It speaks to me of being outside in the Lake District, so I always think of them as happy birds.
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I love curlews, they make such a great noise although I can see why people might find it a bit mournful. Not as good as snipe though, do you have them around by you? My parents get them a lot where they are and the strange drumming noise the males make during the mating season is one of the sounds of home for me.
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Lovely owls! And the curlews came back, hurrah!
On the subject of owls…. Have you seen these little chaps over at Moonstitches? http://moonstitches.typepad.com/moonstitches/2007/02/what_are_they_f.html
She has a little tutorial about how to make them too. I’m planning to make a little army of them to put on the tippermost top shelf above my desk to keep an eye on me as I study.
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