Hello Owlperson2007

[Chocky]

Hi there Owlperson2007 welcome to the site.

[ladylouise62]

Hello there, Owlperson.. do you only post at night?
Ok, not very funny, but funny isn't my forte!

However, we are friendly here.. honest!

[Owlperson2007]

You very much are! Thank you very much for your welcome! It's nice to be the subject of spontaneous hospitality rather than having to start threads for oneself. :} And I'm also happy to meet another Louise from Reading - having just met another woman of that name (my wife and I divorced amicably; like an owl I drifted apart from her and the chicks over the years, and I swear I didn't meet the other Mrs Owlperson until I'd left the first for separate reasons!). Mine comes from Swallowfield - before we left there earlier this month after a while staying with her parents, there was a leaflet going round that celebrated eighty barn owl chicks counted in the neighbourhood after many years' drought. She also remarked she'd seen and heard a lot more birds there over the past few years since she moved there; there are a number of kites around, sparrows seem to have made a comeback and, local cats notwithstanding, there seem to be a lot of very friendly greenfinches. I don't know if there are any nightingales that come any more, but she swore she heard a few twitters at night and at dusk over the last year to eighteen months.

During the day I have my head under my wing, yes, but not currently out of choice (and snowy owls like me are actually diurnal too; there is a breeding colony in Scotland that lacks a male or two to help along; perhaps one should be found ...). I'm famous (I was quite a senior minister and opposition "spokesowl") but am for the moment choosing not to reveal my actual identity - I'm only hibernating, haven't dropped off my perch quite yet - so I can do some research of my own without looking like I'm after votes. I must say if I get back into power - and I intend to - I'm going to make it compulsory for senior ministers to browse places like this, because it's a wonderful way of keeping one claw in the real world...when I was in government the internet was in its infancy, and it's nice to talk to people online without having the room go silent when you enter and be thought as if you're looking for something if you try and talk to them about things you are interested in.

Given that the future Mrs Owlperson - she would call herself Crowgirl, though each to their own - is quite a bit younger than me (the full details will be in the papers soon enough - we won't fly off though, not from somewhere that gives people such a warm welcome) I've shocked a number of people by logging on to forums for people half (or even a quarter) of my age, but I hope you will take my presence here as genuinely interested in birds as an amateur enthusiast and not part of some PR stunt even if I do make the odd reference to it.

Thanks Mikeowl "Harfang". ;}