A review by arwenundomiel03
The Secret Life of the Owl by John Lewis-Stempel
informative
fast-paced
5.0
I listened to the audiobook version of this book, and was utterly enchanted. I have always adored owls - finding them wonderful, beautiful and graceful creatures - with charming, definitely wise looking features (although, of course, they aren’t actually particularly wise - their eyeballs taking up the majority of the space in their skulls, and as John Lewis-Stempel says in the book - being significantly less intelligent than crows and other corvids). I have come to learn through listening to this book however, that there is a great deal more to these wonderful birds than I previously knew: from their folk law status as bringers of death and doom (due to their nocturnal behaviour), to the fact that the eggs of owls have (largely, I believe) never evolved any pigmentation, due to their owl’s continual use of a variety of naturally occurring holes to ‘create’ their nests, which has meant that they have never needed camouflage, nor identification markers. (Lewis-Stempel, J. 2018)
If you have any interest in these magical birds at all - be it that you simply find them pretty, or you are in fact an ornithologist - this book is a must read! You will fall in love with them many times over, and lament the fact that so often human activities are at the detriment to these fabulous creatures.
If you have any interest in these magical birds at all - be it that you simply find them pretty, or you are in fact an ornithologist - this book is a must read! You will fall in love with them many times over, and lament the fact that so often human activities are at the detriment to these fabulous creatures.