5mo ago

Einen Vogel Haben! Rare Ural Owl Spotted in Germany

Ural owl
Sunday evening I get a call from a friend: Israel, there's an owl sitting in our bush, come quickly..."
Shortly before sunset, off I go - and there's an Ural owl (goosebumps included).
This species has not been seen in NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) before... The location is not disclosed in this regard.

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According to his Instagram profile, he lives in the Münsterland (Münster region). This narrows it down a bit more to the north-western part of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).
- I know near nothing about German geography, and google tells me Munster if likely from the Latin for monastery, but as a horror movie fan, Munsterland is a very awesome name, and I wish I was from Munsterland. Also a fan of Muenster cheese, though wikipedia says that is from the Vosges mountains in Alsace, so nearby, but does not sound like the same exact Munster.
  
  You're right about the origin, but as there were monasterys all around Europe, there are a lot of places named after them: Münster, Munster, München (Munich), Monaco and others.
  It's the Münster im Westphalia, where 1648 the peace treaties ending the 30 Year's War were signed and the (close by) Netherlands were recognised as a state. Flat landscape, sparesly populated for German standards, a lot of fields and meadows, and only few wood.
  '* Munster in Alsace, France is about 600 km south from Münster in Westphalia, Germany. So 'nearby' is relative.
"Einen Vogel haben" (lit. to have/own a bird) idiom -> to 'have bats in the belfry' sometimes accompanied by the gesture of tapping the forehead or temple with the index finger.
Hm. 🤔
- I wanted to see if I could get something funny in German even though I don't know any. I thought this phrase worked as it's literally "to have a bird", but I also thought it could work as "I'm going crazy right now looking at this rare owl!"
  Either not many people here know German, or my joke didn't work. 😅
  Nobody picked up on my other little sneaky thing either. This post was from a person named Israel, and I shared the Little Owl from Palestine post at the same time so it was Israel & Palestine, but nobody noticed. I thought it was clever... 🤪
  
  Either not many people here know German, or my joke didn't work. 😅
  I know German and thought it was funny. :D
  A friend of mine studied Biology and had "Gut zu Vögeln" in her Tinder profile. Which translates as "Nice to birds" but also "Nice to fuck" at the same time. German is a strange language.
  
  We're not that smart. Sorry, you have to put up with us🫣
  
  My head canon is that "having a bird" being equated with being crazy comes from these old mechanical wind up clocks where a bird quite literally jumps out to announce the passing of a full hour:
He's got a cute face :)
- They always look so calm and laid back to me.
Very cool - I'd like to believe that's a good sign, but either way it's a cool owl!
- The last German Ural Owl died in 1926, but efforts over the last 2 decades have been made to breed them in zoos and animal centers and release them as breeding pairs to the wild. Over 500 has been released and about 300 have hatched in the wild now!
  Here are a few groups involved in the project.
  
  Sweet!

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