10 April 2011
Owlprint
Posted by Callan Bentley
My high school classmate Christie Wilde Rogers posted this amazing photo on Facebook yesterday — a print, apparently made of feather dander (powder down) that was left behind on a pane glass window when an owl (apparently a great horned owl by the size and shape) smacked into it.
Zoomed in, and with the contrast dialed up a bit:
I find this quite astonishing. You can see not only the hollows of the wings and the outlines of the primaries, but also the smaller scaly feathers on the breast, the feet, and most hauntingly, the eyesockets and perhaps even the eyeballs. The poor owl!
Thanks to Christie for her permission to re-post the image here.
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.
Some months ago that happen in my home. While I was watching tv, a dove crashed agaisnt the window, leaving a perfect print of the wings, one eye and the side of the beak.
I will try to find the pic…
Yes, please — I’d love to compare the two images!
Finally, I found it.
It crashed twice against the window. I am not sure in which order, but you can see one print and then minor marks in the upper left corner.
I didn’t see the dove later on, so I imagine it survived. By the way, this is the main cause of death of birds, the crashes against buildings and windows.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/-jgines/5613162410/in/photostream
Oh, and by the way, at the time that happened, most of the dust on the windows (and everywhere in London like cars, roofs, people…) was coming from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in iceland… I have a bit in an envelope!
Thanks — appreciate you sharing it.
Were the birds OK?
Christie didn’t report any corpses, but make of that what you will.