From Israel Kacar

Ural owl

Sunday evening I get a call from a friend: Israel, there’s an owl sitting in our bush, come quickly…"

Shortly before sunset, off I go - and there’s an Ural owl (goosebumps included).

This species has not been seen in NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) before… The location is not disclosed in this regard.

Original German Text

Habichtskauz

Sonntag abends bekomme ich einen Anruf von einem Freund: „Israel bei uns im Busch sitzt ne Eule komm schnell…" Kurz vor Sonnenuntergang zack los - und siehe da ein Habichtskauz (Gänsehaut inbegriffen) Diese Art wurde in NRW so noch nicht gesehen … Der Standort wird diesbezüglich nicht bekannt gemacht!

Canon eos 90d mit Sigma 150-600 ISO 5000 200mm f9 1/150s

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      10 days ago

      I know near nothing about German geography, and google tells me Munster if likely from the Latin for monastery, but as a horror movie fan, Munsterland is a very awesome name, and I wish I was from Munsterland. Also a fan of Muenster cheese, though wikipedia says that is from the Vosges mountains in Alsace, so nearby, but does not sound like the same exact Munster.

      • Successful_Try543@feddit.org
        0·
        10 days ago

        You’re right about the origin, but as there were monasterys all around Europe, there are a lot of places named after them: Münster, Munster, München (Munich), Monaco and others.
        It’s the Münster im Westphalia, where 1648 the peace treaties ending the 30 Year’s War were signed and the (close by) Netherlands were recognised as a state. Flat landscape, sparesly populated for German standards, a lot of fields and meadows, and only few wood.

        '* Munster in Alsace, France is about 600 km south from Münster in Westphalia, Germany. So ‘nearby’ is relative.

        • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
          0·
          10 days ago

          '* Munster in Alsace, France is about 600 km south from Münster in Westphalia, Germany. So ‘nearby’ is relative.

          I looked it up again, and now I have no idea what I was comparing it to earlier, so yeah, not exactly neighbors! 😅

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      10 days ago

      The last German Ural Owl died in 1926, but efforts over the last 2 decades have been made to breed them in zoos and animal centers and release them as breeding pairs to the wild. Over 500 has been released and about 300 have hatched in the wild now!

      Here are a few groups involved in the project.

  • You@feddit.org
    0·
    10 days ago

    “Einen Vogel haben” (lit. to have/own a bird) idiom -> to ‘have bats in the belfry’ sometimes accompanied by the gesture of tapping the forehead or temple with the index finger.

    Hm. 🤔

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      10 days ago

      I wanted to see if I could get something funny in German even though I don’t know any. I thought this phrase worked as it’s literally “to have a bird”, but I also thought it could work as “I’m going crazy right now looking at this rare owl!”

      Either not many people here know German, or my joke didn’t work. 😅

      Nobody picked up on my other little sneaky thing either. This post was from a person named Israel, and I shared the Little Owl from Palestine post at the same time so it was Israel & Palestine, but nobody noticed. I thought it was clever… 🤪

      • Domi@lemmy.secnd.me
        0·
        10 days ago

        Either not many people here know German, or my joke didn’t work. 😅

        I know German and thought it was funny. :D

        A friend of mine studied Biology and had “Gut zu Vögeln” in her Tinder profile. Which translates as “Nice to birds” but also “Nice to fuck” at the same time. German is a strange language.

        • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
          0·
          10 days ago

          Oh, good! It’s fun to try to see how other languages work. It’s really all the silly and dirty things we actually want to learn when we study languages anyway, isn’t it? 😆

          I googled gut zu völgen to see what depraved things I’d find, but it was surprisingly wholesome looking. I did find this German language blog post that talked about how there are actually a ton of of usage cases for birds or bird related words, including the one you mentioned. What a versatile word it is in German!

            • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
              0·
              9 days ago

              There was so much packed into it and they really made it enjoyable to read. I was able to follow along with all the examples, and nothing felt confusing or intimidating. I really liked it!

        • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
          0·
          10 days ago

          You guys teach me plenty. Languages, memes, various nerd stuff I haven’t gotten around to…

      • takeheart@lemmy.world
        0·
        9 days ago

        My head canon is that “having a bird” being equated with being crazy comes from these old mechanical wind up clocks where a bird quite literally jumps out to announce the passing of a full hour:

        a wooden cuckoo clock