I suppose at least some of you have been interested in the UFO - or now, UAP - phenomena? And know how tightly owls seem to be connected to the wilder parts of that?

Not just abductees see and remember owls. Sometimes those have been assumed to be some sort of screen memories, masking what might have been some of those aliens - or "aliens" - that they encountered. But owls seem to pop up in a lot of stories of simply seeing something like weird lights in the sky too. And in ways that make it look most likely that what was seen was actually real owls, not some sort of hallucinations or screen memories.

And then there is that cabal fascination with owls. Owl statues, owl pictures, owls owls owls...

What the h*ll is it about owls? They are sort of cute, at least the very young ones are, if somewhat stupid seeming birds (in spite of that mythological connection with wisdom they are supposedly among, if not the most stupid, of all birds of prey).

Why owls?