Two Twits and a Hoot

Two Twits And A Hoot

ByTrev

This is a true story from nearly thirty years ago that I happened to come across while perusing the world wide web. It tickled me so much so, I thought it only fair to share it with you.

Way back in 1997, I know it only seems like a few years ago, but it’s nearly 30 years in total. There was a keen bird fancier who lived down in Devon, here in the U.K. I will call him Ben and he was a ‘twitcher’, that’s the name they have adopted as watchers of the feathered variety.

Ben lived in a semi-rural location with quite a few trees surrounding his back garden. One of those properties that are not to close to the adjoining neighbours, but enough space between them all to enjoy quite a bit of privacy.

One evening, Ben was enjoying some time alone in his garden when he heard the call of an Owl. It’s a lovely sound as we have quite a few of them around here that often hoot during the early and late evening. I’m no expert, but I think they are calling out looking for a mate. I don’t know if Ben had some sort of instrument that you blow through or just used his mouth to create his own hoots, but upon his first attempt, the Owl hooted back.

Ben was apparently ecstatic although he couldn’t tell where the Owl was that was happily hooting back. I suppose for a ‘twitcher’ it’s one of those moments that a non twitcher like me, (although I do enjoy the birdsong where we live) wouldn’t really understand the adrenalin rush they get.

As days turned into months, Ben could not believe this owl hooting back at him every evening. No matter how or where he looked, he still couldn’t get a sighting of his new found feathered friend. I suppose if it’s well camouflaged and there are a lot of trees about, it wouldn’t be easy. The needle in a haystack experience.

After months of this hooting back and fore, Ben’s wife happened to meet one of the ladies from a few houses down the street where they lived. Conversation must have turned to this daily ritual Ben had with his invisible feathered friend in the trees. It was at that point that the penny dropped as the lady said her husband had been doing exactly the same thing for the past few months!

What a couple of twits. Both men, night after night in their back garden, hooting to each other when each of them were thinking they were having personal conversations with an owl. You can’t make this stuff up. Can you imagine how disappointed and stupid they must have felt when they realised what they had been doing?

You can read the original story here:

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27 Comments

  5. Love this story. Not sure how I’d feel if it had happened to me. It reminds me of a brief period during the covid lockdown when people would step into their backyards and howl. I dared to do it once and somebody actually howled back. It was delightful!

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