I’m sure most of us can remember those warm summer nights of our childhood. I can recall quite vividly my father and I standing in the back garden, under the old oak tree that grew there and listening to the sounds of the night – wonderful!
It’s amazing what you can hear if you listen well enough. Hedgehogs shuffle, bats flap, foxes pick fights with cats. If you’re lucky enough to hear them – owls call to one another. Though, according to the following delightful story I once read sometimes, these owls are not quite what they seem…
One man’s love of owls was so strong he decided that he would try and communicate with one. To his delight, an owl had been spotted in the local area.
Excitedly, he (we’ll call him David) practised in doors then, before long, found himself hooting, using his best owl impersonation, into the summer night. He waited, called again and waited a little more.
Undeterred, David hooted each night for sometimes up to one hour but, as the weeks went by, grew more and more
frustrated.
He was still at it a month later until, just as his wife was seriously thinking about calling in the men in white coats, something amazing happened – an owl called back!
Over the moon, he ran back inside to fetch tell his wife, Sure enough, each time David called out in perfect owlish another owl answered back.
Even his wife was amazed. So much so that the next day she told her neighbour and best friend.
“You know, that’s amazing,” her friend replied. “What’s even more remarkable is that my Ian has been doing exactly the same thing for weeks. Last night, he was so excited to hear an owl hoot back!”
The truth dawned on the two women who now had a mouthwatering dilemma – should they tell their husbands or not!