Dark the Night
and Pigeon the Owl
Hello. This post is about Death & Birds.
A couple of years ago a Tawny Owl came into the rescue centre. She was found orphaned, and had been hand-reared by a pair of well-meaning members of the public. When Pigeon (the Owl) arrived she believed wholeheartedly that she was human and had no idea that she was, in fact, a Bird of prey. Upon first being introduced to other Tawny Owls she was terrified, clinging to the wildlife manager for dear life and refusing to look the creatures that she so resembled in the eye. Owls are particularly prone to imprinting. At the rescue centre, baby Owls are fed using tweezers concealed within an Owl hand-puppet; their human carers masked by mirrored visors, all to ensure the Owls imprint only upon their own Owl-ness. Over time, Pigeon, through gentle and persistent proximity, began to remember her true self and, eventually, she relaxed around her kin. I wonder whether I was in fact raised by Birds, and my unease around human beings will one day wear off. At the end of the season, Pigeon was released back into the wild along with the Tawnys whom she had once so feared. Back into a world that retreats as the light withdraws from the day; but not she—for the night is hers, and the dark thick with potential.