...am really waiting for is for my new camera to arrive.

Since yesterday was Black Friday, I chose to buy a camera.

You know how I've been complaining all the time that my phone didn't have a good enough camera for me to make decent pictures.

Well, I'm now hoping that it will be good enough for the pics I will put up here on the blog to be a least decent (I WILL have to get the hang of it first, tho - and since I'm not exactly a professional photographer you shouldn't really expect miracles... but hey, I'll try!)

Anyways, it's been almost half a day since I got a message that it's on its way - and that it shall get here today - so I'm hoping that this WILL happen.

I wasn't even sure that they delivered on the weekends, so I was a little bit surprised, but then passed it off as a Black Friday oddity (the site I got it from sold out of almost every item in about 4-5 hours).

But until its arrival I decided to just go ahead and post something (in case my prediction comes true and it will only arrive Monday) that doesn't require for me to upload pictures.

A couple of days ago I received a cool little gift from Emő - actually, I got more than one, but only one of them has anything to do with what I'm about to write about today.

It was a cool little pendant in the form of an owl (which everybody loves around here, so don't be surprised if you see it make an appearance on other people - I think it became our pet...).

So, in the light of this I decided to share a couple of cool facts about owls.

Let's go then!

1. There are about 220 different kinds of owl species all around the world (except Antarctica, of course).

2. The largest owl species is the Great Grey Owl, which can grow up to about 85 cm. Check it out: 


Although this might be the largest in length, it isn't actually the heaviest - OR the one with the biggest wing-span. Those places are accorded to two different kinds of owl species, the Eurasian Eagle Owl: 


And the Blakiston's Fish Owl: 


Pretty big, aren't they?

3. In contrast to these, the smallest owl species is also a competition between two species. The Northern Pygmy Owl, which can grow up to about 18 cm: 


And the Elf Owl, which can be somewhere between 13 and 20 cm: 


So cute, aren't they? 

4. A group of owls can be called in three different ways: parliament, wisdom or study - but they prefer to be solitary.  

5. The oldest owl fossil found till these days is 58 million years old. 

6. Owls have special feathers that make their flight almost soundless. 

7. Owls can see in daytime, contrary to popular belief. Although they usually have to lower their eyelids, because their pupils can't get as big as ours. Because of this they usually appear as if they are half asleep: 


8. Owls don't make nests - they either just use other bird's nests or hide inside trees. Elf owls are so little, they can hide in the holes woodpeckers dig inside a cactus. 

9. The smaller an owl is, the less is their life spans. a big owl, bred in captivity can live up to even 20 years, while there are some species that last only about five years - or even less, only a breeding cycle. 

10. Male and female owls look almost the same, but female owls can get up to 20% bigger than the males. They are also a lot more aggressive than the male ones. 

11. Owls swallow their pray whole, because they don't have teeth, but because they can't digest everything, in about 12 hours they regurgitate the bones, the feathers or the fur in a pellet. 

12. There are about fifteen species only that can be found in Europe. 

13. Owl's aren't wise - parrots and crows are a lot more clever birds than they are - but, they are intelligent enough to be one of the best birds of prey. 

14. Snowy owls can often be found in airports, because the large open spaces remind them of the tundra. 



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