h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Owls of the British Isles - A4473092
Author: Skankyrich - once a Gosho, always an Oojamaflip?? - U931109

I hope this is finished.... has been a long slog for a change! I'm still working on the links and hope to add these during the week.

Nice entry.

I really like the mix of natural history with human history/folklore-y stuff, it works well.

I've got a few points though; apologies in advance for the pedantic nature of some of them!

I think the word "Cathermal" refers to something which is active during both the day and night. (as opposed to Diurnal or Noctural) I've only ever heard it in reference to Primates, but I imagine it could be applied to everything, including short eared owls!

There is a bit in the 2nd Barn owl paragraph where you start a sentence with "And" (sorry... not sure how to quote bits.)

Are you sure mole remains were found in Tawny owl POO? (as opposed to Tawny owl Pellets?)

Finally, Scottish counties are actually called Regions.

There! Looking forward to seeing the finished product,

Rik

Hi Rik!

Thanks for all that! All changed, except the 'Cathermal' suggestion - i'm trying to get across that each source says they are diurnal and crepuscular, or crepuscular and diurnal, or diurnal etc. It seems they are mainly diurnal, but also active at twilight and at night. Cathermal doesn't really come into it, unles I decide to add to the confusion all the sources have already

Pedantry is good in PR, we need to make sure every detail is right,you know!

Having cast a pedantic eye over this ... it's fab!

Seriously - I can't see anything wrong with it

I found a typoo just after I post that, glad I corrected it quick!

Thank you

Another good one from Skankyrich

There are actually quite a few problems of a pedantic nature with this. Eyes down for a full house

"and proprotionately large eyes"
Firstly, 'proportionately'. And I'd have said '*dis*proportionately large eyes'. They're know for having particularly large eyes aren't they?

"and in Britain the screech of a barn owl or 'tu-whit, tu-whoo' of a tawny are among the most obvious calls of any bird"
I'm a city boy and I'm not sure that I've ever heard either of those two sounds. I would probably recognise a 'whoo-whoo' if I heard one, but a screech could be anything to me - a fox perhaps.

"(Barn Owls and others) and Strigidae (all the others)"
It reads quite oddly having 'others' in both sets of brackets there. I presume that the Tytonidae includes barn owls and a number of other species, and the Strigidae is everything else. I wonder if the first bracket can be reworded. Is there a common factor among the Tytonidae that you could work into it?

The names of owls are capitalised in some sentences and not in others.

"They do regurgitate small pellets of indigestible bones, fur and feather which can be found below their nests or perches"
How about 'Their nests and perches can sometimes be located by a scattering of the small pellets of indigestible bones, fur and feather that owls regurgitate'?

"One way to spot them"
'Spot' is already in the previous sentence - how about another word?

"which can be bought for various species"
'for specific species'? Or are owl whistles generic?

The Julius Caesar quote should be in italics.

Is 'macabrely' really a word?

"was heard in amongst the houses"
'was heard amongst the houses'

"The owls are not what they seem" (Twin Peaks).

"All of our owls have suffered a decline"
I think you should make it clear that owl *numbers* have declined, rather than owls getting depressed and going into a collective funk

"and it has been estimate" - estimated

"that 3-5000 barn owls are killed"
'that 3,000-5,000 barn owls are killed', or even better - 'that between 3,000 and 5,000 barn owls are killed'

"has limited homes available to owls"
'has limited the number of available nesting sites for owls'

"20th century" - Century (and throughout the entry)
In fact, that entire sentence doesn't seem quite right, but I can't put my finger on exactly why right now.

"of many owls declined sharply, especially when it was found that many rodenticides"
Too many 'many's.

4000 - 4,000

"Over in America"
'In America'

Do you know roughly where the Newuk tribe lived? 'the Newuk tribe of...'

"strange luminosity gave rise to the strange legends"
Too may 'strange's

"Will O The Wisp, or Jack O Lantern, ot Min Min Light, or Dead Man's Campfire"
'Will o' The Wisp, Jack o' Lantern, Min Min Light, and Dead Man's Campfire'
I'm not 100% sure about O vs o'.

"in Derbyshire, amongst others"
'in Derbyshire, amongst other places' or 'in places such as Derbyshire'

9000 - 9,000

vay - vary

"at around 4-5000 pairs, 2000 of which"
'at between 4,000 and 5,000 pairs, 2,000 of which'

commonest - most common

british - British

2000 - 2,000

"in the north of England and Scotland"
'in the north of England and in Scotland'

"most regions of the Britain"
'Britain' or 'British Isles'?

"where they are not considered resident - but are recorded occasionally"
'where they are not considered resident, but are occasionally recorded'

"(mole remains have been found in tawny owl pellets, leading some to suggest that moles spend more time above ground than first thought)"
Anything as long or longer than a line of text shouldn't be in parentheses. I'd suggest a footnote for that since it's about moles rather than owls.

"in the Fetlar, Shetland"
Is it really *in* the Fetlar? What is the Fetlar?

http://www.owlpages.com needs to be turned into a link.

If you've spent an hour commenting on an entry, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways

Which is exactly what I'm going to do... have breakfast anyway

*faint*

Superb article. Suggest you abandon campaign to have Oojakapiv change name to Gosho. Appears to have generated unanticipated "blowback".

Phred

Jes' doing m'job - impartially and without favouritism or malice

Thanks Gosho

>"They do regurgitate small pellets of indigestible bones, fur and feather which can be found below their nests or perches"
How about 'Their nests and perches can sometimes be located by a scattering of the small pellets of indigestible bones, fur and feather that owls regurgitate'? - Have left this as it is, simply because I'm talking about owl behaviour and not how to locate them, so prefer this emphasis.


>"The owls are not what they seem" (Twin Peaks). - Sorry, not a fan so don't understand!


All the rest updated. Thank you for taking the time to go through this in so much detail for me, and have invested a penny to treat you next time at Milliways....

Thanks again

"Sorry, not a fan so don't understand!"
Anyone who professes to understand Twin Peaks is either lying, drunk, drugged up to the eyballs or stark raving loonified Although it seemed to be something important in the series, I just put that in there for the hell of it

disproprotionately - disproportionately

"the owls are not what they seem"

right... this is an odd one!

This refers to the character Bob, who's a nasty piece of work. He goes round possessing folk and then abusing and murdering teenage girls. He can also turn into an owl, which is rather usefull but kinda meaningless plot wise apart from the fact that the above phrase sounds quite cool.

There is some other stuff about a one armed man and the black lodge, but you don't want to know about that because then it gets really odd.
(however, if you like David Lynch, you should try to figure out the black lodge thing because its a running theme in a lot of his films, although not explicitly)

In fact, I'd say Twin peaks was one of the easiest David Lynch things to understand... its just a great big, very strange soap opera. Try Lost Highway on for size, that really messes with your head!

Of course, this has nothing to do with Owls of the British Isles, first because twin peaks is in America and second, its a very minor bit of the plot.

Rik

Errr.... glad that's cleared up, thanks Rik! Although I'm fairly glad I don't have mention it, Bob hardly seems the Folklory/wildlifey vibe of the rest of the entry

I totally agree... it has nothing to do with the entry!

Hi, Skankyrich!

This is an excellent entry, very comprehensive but still highly readable, with a nice mix of information wihtout being in any way dry.

A few small points:

-->The Irish name of the Barn Owl 'Scréachóg reilige' translates more or less into 'graveyard screecher' or 'little graveyard screecher', which fits nicely with the generally sinster folklore element.

-->About the Little Owl, you say:
"Only four recordings exist from Ireland, where it was
never introduced."
Do you really mean 'recordings' or should this be 'records'? I can imagine someone with four precious old tapes...

-->About the Short-Eared Owl, you say:
"They are most numerous in the north of England and in Scotland, but in the winter can be found in most regions of the British Isles. They can also be found in Ireland,..."
The 'Also' is suggesting that Ireland isn't part of the 'British Isles'--I think this should be 'Britain'.

-->About the Tawny Owl:
I notice you say that its main food is voles. The lack of tawny owls in Ireland when they're so common in Britain may be due to the absence of voles. We have no field or water voles, while bank voles are present in the southwest only since they were introduced in the 1950s. You may not want to include this but it certainly seems a plausible explanation.


Azara

Thanks Azara!

I have corrected everything except the voles; though as you say, its a plausible explanation, but I think it would be speculation where there are plenty of other reasons who they might not have crossed the water.

Thank you very much for the nice comments and the corrections

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<Well done, SR