Today, Primary 1 had such an exciting afternoon with some very special visitors. As part of our light and dark topic, we have been learning about nocturnal animals. So today, we were visited by 6 owls!

They were so cute! We had:

Chili – Chili is a spectacled owl from the South American jungle. She is 6 years old, and prefers warm weather. Today, she was making lots of ‘hissing’ noises, that reminded Mrs Baty of her cats when they fight. She also kept turning around to face away from us. I think she maybe didn’t like being woken up during the day.

Cuddles – Cuddles is a barn owl, and is also 6 years old. She is mainly white, with light brown feathers too. She was very calm and friendly, although also kept trying to fly away (it’s okay – she had her lead on, so she couldn’t go far!).

Otis – Otis is a grey, long eared own. Although we did learn yesterday that owls ears are hidden. We asked about this – Otis is called a long eared owl, but actually it’s not his ears that are sticking up, just feathers. The ears are actually hidden underneath, just as we thought.

Poppy – Poppy is a small, brown, tropical screech owl. She made some little squeaks whilst we were holding her, but not loud at all. She is also from South America, and is 4 years old. We was very good when we were holding her, and loved strokes on her head. She looked like she was going to sleep! Mrs Baty thought she looked a little bit like a pom pom.

 

Bell – Bell is a tengmals owl. She is also very small. She didn’t really want her photo taken, she kept looking away. She was showing off, by showing us how far around she could turn her head. She is originally from Scandinavia, so doesn’t mind the cold weather.

Daisy – Daisy is a white faced owl. She also has feathers that look like ears. She is originally from South Africa, and is about 6 years old. She was showing off for us by doing a little dance whilst we were having a chat. We were able to hold her too, although she kept fidgeting and flapping her wings.

We also found out lots more facts about owls. We have been learning that owls are nocturnal animals (meaning they come out at night) but actually we found this is isn’t quite right.

If an owl has dark coloured eyes, they come out at night.

If it has yellow eyes, it comes out during the day.

If it has orange eyes, it comes out at sunrise or sunset.

We also learned that they sleep up to 20 hours a day!

 

We then asked some fantastic questions:

Lennox – How long are their wings?

A – all owls have very big wings for their size

 

Matthew – do they fly fast or slow?

A – they actually fly quite slowly for birds. They only get to about 30mph.

 

Dermott – why are they tied onto logs?

A – they have to be tied up, the same way a dog has a lead when it goes out – so that it doesn’t fly off and hurt itself. The log is so it’s got something comfortable to sit on.

 

Lucas – can they fly really high in the sky?

A – they actually stay very low so they can find food. They don’t go higher than the trees.

 

Overall, we had a fantastic afternoon!!!