The mystery of owls

All birds are mysterious creatures because of their songs, their migratory habits and their ability to fly, but none may be more mysterious than owls. Jennifer Ackerman probes that mystery in What an Owl Knows (2023).

Owls have been difficult to study because most of them are active only at night. During the day they sit stationary, camouflaged by their feathers. Even experts have difficulty spotting them and finding their nests. One surprising solution to this problem is to train dogs to detect the odor of the pellets disgorged by owls. The pellets are composed of the bones and other indigestible matter in the prey they swallow.

Here are some other amazing facts about owls that Ackerman tells us about:

• There are at least 260 species of owls.

• Some owls hoot while still in their egg.

• Not all owls hoot in the manner usually associated with owls. The author tells of one species whose call sounds like a ringing telephone.

• Snowy owls migrate north, not south, for the winter.

• In some species of owls, only the females migrate. The males stay put in order to claim the best nesting sites when the females return.

• Some captive owls must pass "mouse school" before they can be released. They are even given a final exam in which they must demonstrate an ability to capture living mice.

Ackerman, the author of The Genius of Birds, traveled the world to encounter many kinds of owls, and she talked with many of those who have devoted their lives to the study of owls. She tells us a lot about these creatures, the only birds whose eyes face forward, yet the mystery remains.

Leaky boats

The foolishest book is a kind of leaky boat on a sea of wisdom; some of the wisdom will get in anyway.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

I like the fact that bad books exist. It means that someone had the freedom to write them and get them published. And someone else had the freedom to read them if they wanted to. Of course, one person's bad book can be another person's good book. 

The campaign against misinformation by the Biden administration during the Covid years demonstrated the wisdom of allowing free expression. Much of that "misinformation" turned out to be the truth. Much of what the experts said about Covid turned out to be mistaken. It other words, the proclaimed truth was too often the actual misinformation.

To use the analogy of Oliver Wendell Holmes. the truth eventually seeped into that leaky boat.

Many published books are hogwash. These may include political books on both sides of the spectrum, diet books that don't work. history books that get the facts wrong or the interpretations wrong, and so on. As long as someone else is free to write other books expressing a different point of view or presenting a different set of facts, wisdom will eventually get in.