Posted on 07/15/2011 5:05:44 PM PDT by nuconvert
A woman returned to her Cumbrian home to find a near perfect imprint of an owl on her window.
The bird had apparently crashed into the window of Sally Arnold's Kendal home, leaving the bizarre image - complete with eyes, beak and feathers.
Experts said the silhouette was left by the bird's "powder down" - a substance protecting growing feathers.
Mrs Arnold said she could find no sign of the owl, so assumed it had flown off without serious injury.
She said: "Our first concern was for the welfare of what we suspected was an owl and we opened up the window to check if it was still around.
"Fortunately, there was no sign of the bird and we can only assume that it had flown away probably suffering from a headache."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
I have had this happen several times on my bedroom window, not by an owl, but by a smaller bird. No way to tell what it was at my house. Wish I had thought about taking a picture, I will next time.
Birds hit my windows all the time but rarely leave a mark. Often times it kills them.
Just before the moment of impact the owl saw its reflection in the glass and had applied “the air brakes” an instant before impact. That is why the image left on the glass appears as it does. It is a perfect “picture” of an owl realizing it is about to impact an obstruction in its path, and trying to stop in midair. I’m surprised there isn’t a streak of feces down the windowpane, with such a surprise and forceful impact.
One night I was sitting in my loft when I heard a large “whomp” and the canary that lived on the window sill downstairs (a window with no curtains) started going nuts. I looked at it, trying to figure out what was going on and there was another large “whomp” and the canary fell to the bottom of the cage, with it’s feet pointed in the air like it was dead.
I watched more closely, and all of a sudden, there was a third “whomp” and I saw an owl, in exactly that pose, trying to get the canary, but hitting the window.
He gave up after that, but the next day I found my suet feeder a hundred feet from its tree, smashed on the ground. We figured the owl gave up on the canary and snatched a flying squirrel on the suet feeder instead. He must have grabbed the feeder at the same time, and dropped it from his quite high roost where he enjoyed his dinner.
Was he really dusty or something?
That is cool though. (Ouch.)
Thanx. I’ve never seen these before. I have birds crash into my windows sometimes, but I’ve never seen an imprint.
In the evening after we had our windows got a sparkling clean this spring, we heard a loud thud and saw the imprint of a pidgeon on our window. The next day I found the bird’s carcas riddled with ants under a shrub several yards away from where it probably fell after the impact. I suppose an army of ants could cary a stunned or dead bird quite a long way, or they may have done it with the help of a rodent.
It was beautiful,and he decided to get it stuffed.
When he took it to the taxidermist, he was told,it was illegal and he could get fined if the government found out.
Birds have a lot of oil on their feathers in order to stay water repellant. I think this is more of an oil imprint than a dust one. Kind of like a palm print if you stuck your hand on a clean window.
He was flaring to stop, but just a little late.
Ouch! Poor owl.
At least she didn’t say it looked like Jesus.
Ha! Just showed this to my husband to get his take on it.
He started laughing and said he had seen nearly the exact same thing. He was at a friend’s house, when a pet parrot flew into a mirror. He said it left an exact, powder-like, impression...they couldn’t believe it. Oh, and the parrot was fine after being stunned for a few minutes.
I dunno — to get that image the owl would have to flying forward while oriented vertically.
Or realizing at the last second it was about to hit a solid object. If you could read its beak, it would probably be saying the equivalent of “oh s*it”
There's probably an amateur taxidermist that would do it. See the link below for reference ....
Owls are notoriously non-graceful. I’ve seen some owls look pretty stupid when they try to land. They are not that wise.
>>Or realizing at the last second it was about to hit a solid object. If you could read its beak, it would probably be saying the equivalent of “oh s*it”<<
A couple of people have pointed out that an owl “hitting the brakes” would probably orient vertically, resulting in the image.
Just glad they didn’t find smeared owl on the ground...
Oh, oil! That makes sense. Poor owl.
Hi Grammy.
Funny story.
You cannot even have feathers..without the proper paperwork. Or the right ancestors.......
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.