|
 | | 
24-06-2008, 05:55 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Bewdley
Posts: 3,385
| | A question my brother used to ask me.... did Barn Owls exist before barns,the answer surely has to be yes. Because of barn conversions and he being a chippy hence his curiousity, he seemed to think that numbers had dropped?! Barn Owls do not like wet, cold and windy weather that I know. So where did Barn Owls roost before barns and what was the name given to them......Any ideas 
I always get easy questions from my kid lol  
__________________
vote for Kymba's school lottery Funding ; p |
24-06-2008, 06:18 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Little village called Chedworth
Posts: 4,828
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
they'l nest in trees if there's a big enough hollow (more sucessful in the east where its dryer) - and there would have been plenty of them in the times before people. They'll also nest in crevices in cliff faces or small caves etc...
and before people were around to provide barns I guess they were called screechyhisssssss or whatever other words barn owls are capable of saying!! |
24-06-2008, 06:19 PM
|  | Wild Member | | Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Brockley, SE London
Posts: 123
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Holes in trees, maybe?  |
24-06-2008, 06:25 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Bewdley
Posts: 3,385
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Ahh thanks Gill, I can't wait to pass that on to him, that's great information, you never fail to come up with the answers, but still a little disappointed you spelt They'll incorrectly lol
Cheers Buddy 
__________________
vote for Kymba's school lottery Funding ; p |
24-06-2008, 06:29 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Little village called Chedworth
Posts: 4,828
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jez  Ahh thanks Gill, I can't wait to pass that on to him, that's great information, you never fail to come up with the answers, but still a little disappointed you spelt They'll incorrectly lol
Cheers Buddy | In my world today it's spelt with only one 'l' everyone else is wrong
spelling's overrated ........ |
24-06-2008, 06:36 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Bewdley
Posts: 3,385
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gill Catton In my world today it's spelt with only one 'l' everyone else is wrong
spelling's overrated ........ | inowhatchamean
__________________
vote for Kymba's school lottery Funding ; p |
24-06-2008, 06:48 PM
|  | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Andover
Posts: 868
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Weren't they just called owls before barns were invented
Just a thought
__________________
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Churchill 1940. |
24-06-2008, 06:56 PM
|  | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Sheffield, FPRSY
Posts: 5,090
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
What is wrong with 'they'll'? It's the accepted shortened form of 'they will'. Quote:
Originally Posted by Jez .........., but still a little disappointed you spelt They'll incorrectly lol
Cheers Buddy | |
24-06-2008, 07:00 PM
| | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Andover
Posts: 868
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul mabbott What is wrong with 'they'll'? It's the accepted shortened form of 'they will'. | It's the first "they'l" and with out a capital letter. 8/10
__________________
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Churchill 1940. |
24-06-2008, 07:04 PM
| | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Sheffield, FPRSY
Posts: 5,090
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Sorry - not looking closely enough, getting confused, senile decay ....  |
24-06-2008, 07:11 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Bewdley
Posts: 3,385
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
No worries Paul. It's just that Gill is always astute, a great credit to WAB in my eyes, hence the little tease, we all have our off days. Though coming to think of it have I ever had a day when I'm on???
__________________
vote for Kymba's school lottery Funding ; p |
24-06-2008, 07:12 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: N.E. Derbyshire
Posts: 1,718
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Hi
apparently the name Barn Owl has only been used since the 1600's. The word owl is said to be derrived from the old anglo saxon word Ule - "to hoot".
The owl was thought to be the harbinger of death or associated with witches or evil.The Romans called it Strix ( meaning witch). In medieval times it was often called "Night Hag" again the witch association.
Other names in the same light were "screech Owl" , "Death Owl" and "Ghost Owl".
neil |
24-06-2008, 07:18 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Northants
Posts: 4,747
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Quote:
Originally Posted by wildlifesnapper Hi
apparently the name Barn Owl has only been used since the 1600's. The word owl is said to be derrived from the old anglo saxon word Ule - "to hoot".
The owl was thought to be the harbinger of death or associated with witches or evil.The Romans called it Strix ( meaning witch). In medieval times it was often called "Night Hag" again the witch association.
Other names in the same light were "screech Owl" , "Death Owl" and "Ghost Owl".
neil | Wow, this site never ceases to amaze me. Where do you get your information form!! very interesting.. |
24-06-2008, 07:18 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Bewdley
Posts: 3,385
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Yer we all know that the Romans put down the nature loving pagans and there is one beautiful Goddess that is associated with the Barn Owl and I just can't think of her name atm! 
__________________
vote for Kymba's school lottery Funding ; p |
24-06-2008, 07:25 PM
| | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Sheffield, FPRSY
Posts: 5,090
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jez Yer we all know that the Romans put down the nature loving pagans and there is one beautiful Goddess that is associated with the Barn Owl and I just can't think of her name atm! | You may be confusing with Greek mythology - Athene, the wise (doesn't say anything about her looks - and it might not be wise to comment on that sort of thing amongst thundebolt-heavers ) goddess and patronne of Athens is depicted as the little owl Athene noctua.
I think that our forebears weren't too bothered about species definitions - an owl was an owl was an owl and was wise!
Last edited by Paul mabbott; 24-06-2008 at 07:26 PM.
Reason: typo
|
24-06-2008, 07:57 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Bewdley
Posts: 3,385
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Definitely a Celtic Goddess depicted with a barn owl in a book of mine by R.J Stewart, but it seems there's always equivalents from other origins! Not to worry I'll seek her out!
__________________
vote for Kymba's school lottery Funding ; p |
25-06-2008, 08:38 AM
|  | Wild Member | | Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Baldock, Herts
Posts: 233
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul mabbott You may be confusing with Greek mythology - Athene, the wise (doesn't say anything about her looks - and it might not be wise to comment on that sort of thing amongst thundebolt-heavers ) goddess and patronne of Athens is depicted as the little owl Athene noctua.
I think that our forebears weren't too bothered about species definitions - an owl was an owl was an owl and was wise! | I like latin names like Athene noctua. Really makes you associate the bird with the myths!
I imagine that our ancient hunter-gatherer forebears knew vast amounts about the different species they encountered and could surely distinguish different species. That's true of the few such peoples around today. Somehow that knowledge gets lost when people settled to farming and learned to read and write! |
25-06-2008, 09:26 AM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Bewdley
Posts: 3,385
| | | re: Barn Owls Before Barns
The flower maiden. Blodeuwedd, tranformed by Gwydion an owl a night bird with a flower face but ah she betrayed her hubby!
__________________
vote for Kymba's school lottery Funding ; p |
25-06-2008, 02:48 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Little village called Chedworth
Posts: 4,828
| | | Re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Billy Wobble Dagger It's the first "they'l" and with out a capital letter. 8/10 | My fingers type faster than my brain does......  |
25-06-2008, 02:56 PM
|  | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: North Yorkshire ( Gods Country )
Posts: 953
| | | Re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gill Catton My fingers type faster than my brain does...... | With me its the other way around ..... Anyway barn wols may have always been called barn wols. Took mankind a while to get around to building them barns to live in thats all....
__________________
Real problems are solved by actions, not by p.....g and moaning.... |
25-06-2008, 04:49 PM
| | Wild Member | | Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Baldock, Herts
Posts: 233
| | | Re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Brilliant! So the buildings are named after the birds. How did they know what sort of buildings the barn owls would like? Maybe they built different types, and the one that was most popular with the owls got to be called a Barn.....
Anyway perhaps Barn Owls were not in Britain before farming started? The whole country was covered in dense forest wasn't it? |
25-06-2008, 08:14 PM
|  | New Member | | Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Norwich
Posts: 12
| | | Re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jez A question my brother used to ask me.... did Barn Owls exist before barns,the answer surely has to be yes. Because of barn conversions and he being a chippy hence his curiousity, he seemed to think that numbers had dropped?! Barn Owls do not like wet, cold and windy weather that I know. So where did Barn Owls roost before barns and what was the name given to them......Any ideas
I always get easy questions from my kid lol | Before we started building barns the vocabulary probably centered around the phrase 'UG'. We may have refered to them as 'lunch'. |
25-06-2008, 09:03 PM
| | Wild Member | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: Hartley, Kent
Posts: 142
| | | Re: Barn Owls Before Barns
I've seen House Martins nesting under the eaves of a bungalow........How confusing is that? |
25-06-2008, 09:16 PM
|  | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Chilterns
Posts: 7,894
| | | Re: Barn Owls Before Barns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jez The flower maiden. Blodeuwedd, tranformed by Gwydion an owl a night bird with a flower face but ah she betrayed her hubby! | Quite so - didnt do her lover a lot of good either.
her lover ambushed her husband while he was out hunting and killed him with a spear - however gwydion brought him back to life and he challenged the lover to a rematch - the lover agreed that the husband could throw a spear at him in return but cheated and stood behind a big stone
however unfortunately for him the husbands spear was blessed by the gods and went straight through the stone and killed the lover anyway.
Gwydion then turned blodeuwedd into an owl as punishment for causing all this strife in the first place.
this ancient welsh (british) folk tale formed the basis for alan garners book "the owl service"
my but i know a lot of useless information dont I ? | |
