The Owl Eye Spring 2016

The end of the Banquet held a great surprise - after a detailed presentation from Professor Pertti Saurola
on his 50 years of work with Ural Owls, a very beautiful owl, Karla cajoled him to share with us another
of his talents. Apparently, Pertti was also a professional singer and toured the world with a choral group.
He sang for us two lovely songs, one in English and one in his native Finnish.
Uhu the Eurasian Eagle Owl
Photo: Bryan Banister
Sunday, the last day of the Festival, was a relatively short day due to the fact that we had to drive back
to Chicago. Nevertheless, I found many last minute activites to do such as take another look at the
vendors that perhaps I had missed. And I did miss a few! One great find was Katy Jo Turner, who wrote
the book, “Who Cooks for You?” a children’s book about Howie the Barred Owl and his adventures in
finding his breakfast. Illustrated by Melissa Marroquin, this beautiful book also includes not only a great
story line, but facts about Barred Owls. Katy Jo was formerly an environmental educator, this being
the reason for all of her included facts. I enjoyed talking to Katy Jo and unsurprisingly bought a copy of
“Who Cooks for You” and had it signed. Vist www.katyjoturner.com for more information on this book.
We also found time to visit the International Owl Center one more time
since lunch the previous day. Sunday was much less crowded, as I hoped,
and we were able to browse around the shop (you’ve never seen so many
owl things!) and also visit with Ruby, Rubert and Uhu - two Great Horned
Owls and the Eurasian Eagle Owl respectively. The Eurasian Eagle Owl is
one of the largest owl species and has beautiful orange eyes and orangeybrown
feathers. She is also huge and very gentle. The Center did not do
their usualy programs that day with the owls, but I was told that Uhu
does a flying performance during the regular presentation. Maybe we will
be able to see this one day. The Center also had some really interesting
exhibits like many taxidermied owls of different species along the wall.
If you have never seen some of these owls in real life, seeing what they
actually look like is pretty amazing. Also, there was a map of how “owl”
was said in different languages all over the world. I thought that was pretty interesting as well.
Photo Credits this page: Lisa Spiegelman
Wrapping it Up...
All in all I would say that a visit to the International Festival of Owls is a must do for any owl fan or
afficianado. I myself loved learning all about owls and being around others that feel the same way
was quite a treat. I think all too often we feel that because of our interests and passions that we are
separate or different from others, but a visit such as this makes you realize that that is not right at all.
Our interests make us come together and share our information and stories - about owls - and the
greatness that they teach us as well.