Owl of the Year is back!! π₯ππ¦π
Come and vote for your favorite #Owl at @[email protected] in the most exiting tournament of the fediverse!
The qualifying rounds have started already.
#superbowl #owloftheyear24
this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2024
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I think I'm ready to start getting Owl of the Year underway!
Last year went well, but between you guys' feedback and my own, this year will be mostly the same, but a few improvements.
First change is the competitors. Last year I picked every owl, but this year I'll let you choose! I'm hoping that makes a few early rounds more exciting, since they will all be the owls you want to see.
I'm keeping everyone who moved onto the second round in. These owls are:
- Barn
- Buffy Fish
- Morepork
- Little
- Snowy
- Short Eared
- Great Gray
- Flammulated
- Burrowing
- Elf
- Saw Whet
- White Faced Scops
- Sooty
- Blakiston Fish
- Northern Pygmy
- Eastern Screech
Everyone who got knocked out has to compete to stay in. Those will be competing here. I'll let this run for the week so everyone has time to vote.
I'll put the 16 from last year in this post, and next week I'll run 16 newcomers! Top 8 from each will go on to the tournament to face the 16 returning owls.
Rules are simple and the same as before: simply upvote which you like.
Vote for one or two, vote for all, vote for none, the choice is yours.
Downvotes do not count.
In the need of a tiebreaker, I defer to my SO's vote, so I have no way in much of anything as far as results go.
Second change, the prize. Last year, this was all pretty new, and it was originally going to be a purely symbolic prize, other than we changed the banner and icon to reflect the finalists and winner.
It ended up being very fun, and in the spirit of owl celebration, I made a cash contribution in c/Superbowl's name to my local owl rescue. I did this mainly because I was familiar with them and knew they were legit.
Now that we've been doing this for over a year and have seen over a hundred rescues I'm sure, I thought if you guys had any rescue story that has stuck out this year or if there's a name you feel you have seen a lot like (in no particular order) A Place Called Hope, Middle TN Raptor Center, the University of MN, The Raptor Trust, or anyone else, give them a shout out during any of these threads or message me, and I can have you guys vote who gets the prize this year.
I do not want any money from you, and I will never ask for it. If you like the work you see here, donate directly to the rescue or get them something from their wishlist. I'm still going to donate this year again to my local rehab because it made me happy. This prize will be in addition.
With all that out of the way, here are your first contests!
#superbowl #owloftheyear24
Long Eared Owl
First pic: "oh shit, did I leave the oven on?"
Second: "I'm really worried about Steve's drinking.."
They both do have serious looks of concern! π―
Crested Owl
Eurasian Eagle Owl
My vote is for this guy. I visited a place in the Alps where these guys lived in the cliffs and some local family friends said to never leave your baby under 2 months unattended because the βUhusβ can still carry them at that age.
For all the things to fear as a new parent! π
Who knew? I was surprised
To be fair, I haven't come across any reliable stories about a hawk, owl, or eagle actually doing anything other than swooping a pet or child to guard their territory. They're all much bigger than their normal prey and don't much look like their normal prey.
Looking up the stats on the Powerful Owl for another reply, most raptors won't bother with anything over 20% of their body weight. PO is named so because it will take much larger arboreal mammals, but even then a car or newborn is still more than 100% body weight.
Yeah, it definitely seemed like a folk tale the way it was told. But itβs interesting that it exists at all.
Hereβs a photo of the cliffs across the small valley if youβre curious!
That looks amazing! Where is that?
Itβs taken from a small castle/museum in the Italian Alps called Brunnenburg. At the top of the cliff, you can barely see a larger castle called Schloss Tirol, theyβll both show up on Google maps if you search for it. Itβs one of, if not the most beautiful places Iβve been and I keep going back
That is a beautiful setting for a castle indeed!
Another place added to my ever growing list of things I need to see. βΊοΈ
Great Horned Owl
It IS pretty great, yeah!
I'm glad the Lesser Horned Owl is also called the Magellanic Horned Owl. I think they're great too.
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Barred Owl
Burrowing!
Saw Whet!
Less Filling!
Great Taste!
Mmm....tough with a pronounced rodent flavor! π«’
Oriental Bay Owl
Is it trying mind control?
You won't know until it's too late! π
. . . all glory to the oriental bay owl . . .
I love me some OBO!
Barking Owl
Barking Owl
Spectacled Owl
Ural Owl
Black and White Owl
Tawny Owl
Bare Legged Owl
Northern Hawk Owl
Spotted Owl
It's true! I spotted it!
I never stopped believing in you! π
Chaco Owl
Powerful Owl
So does it bench twice its bodyweight or is it like an owl senator? π€
Not infrequently, prey weight averages between 50 and 100%, whereas, in most other raptors, including large owls, there seems to be a "rule" that most prey weighs 20% or less of the raptors' own weight.
They're also one of the very few raptors where the male is larger, therefore calling the shots in the relationship.
So I guess that makes the answer to your question: yes.
Me: I wonβt vote for all the owls
Also me: [votes for all the owls]
I think most of the fun comes from having the difficult choices.
A few people chimed in last year that we shouldn't be pitting them against each other, that it's not a competition and we should love them all equal, etc.
That's the whole point of the contest! They're all great, so how does one choose?! It's a challenge for us, not for the birds, they're just pictures.
I hope you enjoy the rest of the contest, and I look forward to hearing about everyone's difficult decisions! It's a ton of work for me, but at least I don't have to decide anything once I have the bracket made, then it's up to you!
I try to stay impartial during things, but it was shocking seeing Great Horned and Eagle knocked out in the first rounds last year.
I'm curious to see if they do better this year.
There's also a ton of great new owls coming next round, some of which I don't think I've even had a chance to cover yet, so there's new and exciting new birds for you to fall in love with! I'm anxious to see which ones you all like!
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@[email protected] Unfortunalety the edit has not fediverse to Sharkey. That's common but if you add it from the start next time, it will not be a problem. I will respond to this post with a comment with the hashtag so they are added. Thanks for alway working so hard π
I will do my best to remember!
I'm glad you are having fun. βΊοΈ
What if your SO upvotes all owls, too? :D
Thankfully she comes from a very long line of strongly opinionated people! π
I think there were 2 ties last year, but neither was a tough decision for her. She knows she's the tiebreaker though, and takes the responsibility with the utmost sincerity! She's the one that really kickstarted my interest in owls after all.
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