When I was a boy I used to go to Silver Blades ice rink in Streatham on Saturday mornings. The crash-hot skaters used to charge the rink-exits flat out — and then stop dead an inch before disaster by turning their skates round as breakes, so that they almost faced the opposite way. I longed to do that.
I have just realised that barn owls do the same thing. I have been watching one — a burly female, I think — hunt over the marsh behind the house. A barn owl hunt is a hectic business: dashing here and dashing there, trying to get a full meal before the light goes: they are specialists of the dusk, rather than lovers of the night.
She was flying at about six feet from the ground, and at some speed, white wings in a silent whir. And when she spotted something tasty, she went into Silver Blades mode: a full 180 in the air, at the same time flipping up her tail and dropping her head, looking at the same spot on the ground all the time is if trying to stare a hole in it. She seemed to turn on the axis of her eyes.
The half-spin brought her forward-speed to zero in an instant of time, allowing her to drop vertically; without it she would have over-shot. She went down headfirst and as she did so, she swung her long legs either side of face, so everything was lined up with immense precision. And struck.
And I longed to do that.
Can’t imagin you ice skating. next time I meet an ice skater I will ask them if they have ever seen simiarities with how they come to a sudden ice-pick stop with that of a barn owl going in for the kill. It might give them soethig to think about.
Magical description.
I used to go to Silver Blades a long time ago. What a place. Wouldn’t have thought of comparing skating to a barn owl’s flight manoeuvre.
We might quite literally have bumped into each other…
Lovely post. x.
Fantastic post Simon. The winter is not so long with your humorous and cheerful writing. You bring great joy as does the great tit. Elizabeth
Silver Blades nostalgia and occasionally the Bali Hi nightclub above if me and my pals from Emanuel school could convince the management that we were old enough.
I was never brave enough for the Bali Hai — though I met my first girlfriend in the crypt at Immanuel Church, which took courage of a different kind…
Really enjoyed your observations of the owl’s hunting mode. I recall canoeing up a river on the garden route in South Africa – and then drifting back down keeping still. All the birds came out, thinking of us as a floating log. Marvellous way to bird watch. Thank you again.