Who cooks for you?

When Marty and I were dating, we had a lot of late night drives home.  He lived in Butler and I lived in Sharon.  It was 40 miles between houses.  Considering we saw each other almost every night and didn't drive home until we had watched at least part of Conan...they were definitely moonlight treks.  But the interesting thing about driving at that time of night is the programs you can find on the radio.  One of our favorites was Coast to Coast with George Noory.  Most of the time we couldn't wait until the next day so we could relate what crazy thing we heard.

If you are not familiar with Coast to Coast...well, then I would consider that a good thing.  The subject matter could range from UFO's to Sasquatch to the Mothman to psychic predictions or any other crazy out of the ordinary phenomenon.  And the best part was how serious these discussions seemed to be.  

Now what made me bring this up is owls.  I was sitting in my living room tonight looking around and noticing all the owls.  I started to wonder about all those owls.  I mean, I know how the owl thing got started with us but I just wondered why they were so appealing to me.  What is it about owls that I like?  They just make me happy.  I like their big eyes and the expressions on their faces.  I like their feathers.  I like the way they sound.  So back to Coast to Coast.

I'm trying to tie this all together for you.

One night Marty was driving and listening to Coast to Coast and a guy called in and said that every time he sees an owl, a light goes out.  He could be at home watching TV and a nature program would come on with an owl and...a light bulb burns out.  He would be at Walmart and see one of those plastic garden owls...and a light would go out.  Well we thought this was pretty funny mainly because we thought...how often do you see an owl anyway?   Turns out, once we said that...we noticed an owl every day.   You just have to be aware and looking for them.  They really are everywhere.  Then we started buying owls for each other.  Then other people noticed we had owls and they started buying them for us.  And that is how you end up sitting in your living room looking at owls.  Coast to Coast.

Owls have special feathers that help them to fly almost silently.  There are over 150 different species of owls.  Owls can rotate their heads up to 270 degrees.  A barn owl can eat up to 1000 mice in a year.  (I need one at my house)  An owl can hear a mouse from 60 feet away.  Owls have three sets of eyelids. 

You can watch an owl here.

And one of the best owl related things to happen to us.   After we got married and moved to our new house...one night we heard an owl hooting right outside our bedroom window!!!   We still hear it from time to time.   It says...hoo, hoohoohoo, hoo.   

According to a bird book that I have (all good bird nerds have a bird book or two),  some owls say...who, who cooks for you....

Have you seen an owl today?