[HN Gopher] Owls in Towels
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Owls in Towels
Author : schaum
Score : 680 points
Date : 2025-05-26 20:27 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (owlsintowels.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (owlsintowels.org)
| josh-sematic wrote:
| I love this. The web used to be a place filled to the brim with
| people making sites about stuff dedicated to some niche thing
| that brought them joy. Glad to see that vibe still survives out
| there.
|
| Edit: to be clear, this site is connected with an organization
| and probably exists to help promote it, but it still gives that
| "look, this is cool!" passion to me.
| lolinder wrote:
| Is it connected with an organization? I don't see any evidence
| of that in the About page or anywhere else. The donations page
| says to find a local wildlife sanctuary and donate to that,
| then links out to two options if you really can't find one of
| your own. But I see no evidence that it's associated with
| either one of those entities it links to.
|
| https://owlsintowels.org/support/donate/
| josh-sematic wrote:
| Good catch! I saw the "donate" link and assumed whoever made
| the site was using it for funding. All the better!
| roughly wrote:
| This is a delight!
|
| This site is a great reminder that almost everyone visiting
| Hacker News has a set of skills which can be put to beneficial
| use for causes you care about - this is a small, simple, cheap
| site (and I mean that in a good way!) that attracts attention,
| awareness, and donations to something the author cares about.
| It's easy for us, but it's magic for most people. Don't let your
| tech industry imposter syndrome fool you - we can do valuable
| things to forward causes we care about.
|
| Also, it's adorable!
| imposterr wrote:
| I've stopped using the word "cheap" to describe situations like
| this as the word has too many negative connotations. I tend
| towards "inexpensive", "cost-effective", or "low-cost". I find
| it better describes my intent to describe something as not
| costing much but not speaking to poor quality which I feel like
| the word "cheap" has come to imply.
| novosel wrote:
| Frugal?
| gsck wrote:
| Theres a phrase in the UK that is "Cheap and cheerful" which
| I think is perfectly apt for this
| specproc wrote:
| I think "cheap" sounds worse in American.
| jxf wrote:
| This is a beautiful demonstration of how technology can be
| simple and powerful for amplifying a message at the same time
| -- no matter the silliness or seriousness of the message. Very
| "Old Web" vibes.
|
| Anyone who's worked on random enterprise CRUD REST apps earlier
| in their career (myself included) knows the pain of wishing
| that you were doing something a little more helpful or positive
| for humanity.
| gala8y wrote:
| > Very "Old Web" vibes.
|
| *Owl Web
|
| Owl Rights Reserved (at the footer)
| arkey wrote:
| at the hooter?
| ahazred8ta wrote:
| Dovetails nicely with the Superb Owl enthusiasts.
|
| https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22superb+owl%22&ia=images&iax=ima.
| ..
| patates wrote:
| > cheap site (and I mean that in a good way!)
|
| I guess English needs different words for the German "Gunstig"
| and "Billig". They both translate to cheap, but "Gunstig" means
| something like cost-effective/affordable (but I guess not
| quite?), and is positive, while "Billig" is strictly negative.
| thesuitonym wrote:
| English already has a lot of words for both meanings. It's
| more that American culture has designated _anything_ low cost
| as being of poorer quality.
| PopAlongKid wrote:
| Has that changed over time? Nearly fifty years ago, when
| self-serve gasoline pumping at gas stations was first coming
| into widespread use, I (native English speaker) was in
| Germany and remember a slogan I saw at gas stations to
| promote it: "selbst tanken ist billiger tanken" (sorry if I
| misspelled/mis-capitalized). So it seems Billig did not have
| such a negative connotation then.
| echelon wrote:
| We have words for "cheap" that don't carry the pejorative
| meaning.
|
| "Affordable" is the most frequent replacement. There's also
| "inexpensive".
| anjel wrote:
| Affordable can be as euphemistic as it isn't pejorative
| though.
| kristopolous wrote:
| The consistency in the quality and sharpness of the photos isn't
| lost on me. There's obviously lots of curation in this
| collections, must be some work!
| yflin wrote:
| cute
| pierrec wrote:
| That's something I've done a few times! Mostly from having lived
| in a wildlife shelter (LPO Ile Grande) for 2 months, since they
| have quarters for volunteers who wish to stay. Out of all the
| birds that collide and are unable to fly, you'd be surprised at
| how many recover, and I mean it's not as grim as some people make
| it out to be.
|
| That shelter was especially interesting because it's near the
| nesting grounds of marine birds that are relatively rare in
| France or even Europe overall. Cargo ships in the English channel
| illegally dump oil waste all the time, and the oiled marine birds
| just float helplessly to the beach, still alive. People pick them
| up and bring them to the shelter where we literally hand-wash
| them with soap and put them in a bird drying station. The numbers
| could get overwhelming and we would have to make "bird washing
| assembly lines" on occasion.
|
| It's a whole discipline with specialized equipment, passed-down
| knowledge and passionate people!
| bitwize wrote:
| One brand of American dish soap, Dawn, has a duckling as a
| mascot, and has for some years advertised its grease-cutting
| capability (and gentleness on living things) by showing that it
| is used to clean oil off waterfowl who have been caught in a
| slick.
| f4c39012 wrote:
| One brand of UK dish soap, Fairy Liquid, bears the label
| "H412 - Harmful to aquatic life with long lasting effects"
| thyristan wrote:
| https://www.newhall.co.uk/media/7440_msds.pdf
|
| The H412 comes from sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) which is
| contained (in large amounts, like 20 to 70% by weight) in
| practically every kind of liquid soapy detergent, shampoo,
| liquid hand soap and what not. The only reason you know of
| that one product is that they seem to sell to professionals
| as well, which is why they need a material safety data
| sheet. Your shampoo doesn't need that, so you just don't
| know that it is just as harmful.
|
| Edit: Dawn seems to contain it as well, look for CAS#
| 68585-34-2: https://msdsdigital.com/system/files/Dawn_Profe
| ssional_Dish_... The missing H- and S-numbers in that
| datasheet come from the differing standards and maybe the
| different concentrations.
| mkesper wrote:
| So use solid soap / shampoo for outdoors (check usability
| first, naturally).
| thyristan wrote:
| Solid soap isn't any better. All of those work by making
| fats water-soluble. This destroys mucous membranes and
| skin slime layer of fish and other animals and breaks
| down lipid barriers of algae and bacteria.
|
| The real takeaway is that concentration matters a lot:
| one person washing up for the morning won't kill a pond,
| but a hundred people or prolonged exposition will.
| SAI_Peregrinus wrote:
| It's in all sorts of crap, not just soap. Hand lotion,
| toothpaste, etc. I'm unlucky enough to be allergic to it,
| my skin blisters & peels off after touching even rather
| small quantities. Finding safe cleaning & hygiene
| products (especially toothpaste) was difficult, but
| thankfully there are some brands that started producing
| sulfate-free products for the new-age free-range organic
| everything crowd, so it's been getting easier.
| rsynnott wrote:
| Yes; don't wash your pet halibut with it. Don't think it
| should be dangerous to birds, tho.
| seanhunter wrote:
| That's just to emphasise the fact that you don't use fairy
| liquid to clean ducks. You use it to clean fairies.
|
| Likewise toilet duck toilet cleaner is just a brand name.
| You use it for cleaning duck _toilets_ not ducks
| themselves. And don 't get me _started_ on duck tape. One
| honest mistake and it 's a lifetime ban from the RSPB.
| waysa wrote:
| Fairy dish soap is the European version of Dawn. I'd be
| surprised if the formulation were significantly different.
| sixothree wrote:
| Isn't its effectiveness because it's partially oil-based?
| rkagerer wrote:
| What's a bird drying station? (It conjures up a vision of a
| 60's blow dry salon...)
| pierrec wrote:
| Modular cages through which air could flow freely, with
| heater fans pointed at them at the right temperature. After
| being exposed to soap, birds lose their vital layer of
| insulation (until they're dried) so you have to artificially
| maintain their body temperature.
| julian_t wrote:
| Years ago we found a large heron with a broken wing on the road
| outside our house in Wales. It had probably hit a power cable,
| and was hopping around dragging its wing. It was basically a
| homicidal needle beak, obviously not in the best of moods.
|
| An elderly lady come out to see what the fuss was about, saw
| the bird, went back inside and then reappeared holding a block
| of polystyrene foam. She marched up to the bird, which very
| soon after found itself with a lump of foam on the end of its
| beak. That gave others the opportunity to wrap it in a blanket
| (bit big for a towel) and take it to the vet.
|
| Those old ladies are tough!
| cogogo wrote:
| Such amazing animals. Everytime I see one I am so thrilled. Saw a
| snowy owl this winter and they are so gorgeous. Also really weird
| how easy it is to anthropomorphize an owl. They generally look
| very surprised or very angry. Love it.
| ttoinou wrote:
| Do you think this kind of internet nuggets will still exist in
| our soon to be post-AI world ? We won't be able to know who sent
| a real vs. a fake picture
| abstractbill wrote:
| Honestly my first reaction to seeing these photos was to wonder
| if they were AI-generated (I'm not suggesting they are, I just
| have that response quite often now).
| rajnathani wrote:
| Exact same, my first reaction to the photos were to think
| they are AI-generated (which amazingly, they aren't).
| idamantium wrote:
| I actually didn't think that at all, maybe because the
| opening text was so straight forward, earnest, and
| pragmatic?
| GreenWatermelon wrote:
| I guess we will have to rely on extra-net signals: Meta clues
| from the real world.
|
| For example, the website creator doesn't seem to be looking for
| profit, nor did they add much oin terms of personal info that
| would point to him looking for internet clout.
|
| The FAQ page comes across as genuine and, as another commenter
| put it, whimsical.
|
| It's also all self hosted, and on a unique domain, while mass-
| content-farmera prefer prefer the zombified audiences of Tiktok
| and Facebook.
|
| All those signals combine into a high probability of everything
| on the site being genuine.
| tharakam wrote:
| I expected something Semantic Web-related.
| https://www.w3.org/OWL/
| fallinghawks wrote:
| Now do Hawks in Socks!
|
| (Nylon stockings are commonly used when transporting a wild bird
| for an hour or two).
| pfdietz wrote:
| I went to a presentation on the reintroduction of the bald
| eagle to New York state. When handling young eagles, the
| presenter (then much younger) found the best way to immobilize
| them was stuff them into the leg of her pants (not when she was
| wearing the pants, mind you.)
|
| She had to constantly do this as they fledged, since they
| couldn't get back up to the platform where the nest was. In the
| wild, the parents would continue to feed the young after they
| left the nest but before they could fly, but that wasn't
| practical for her to do.
|
| The process of raising raptors from eggs is called "hacking",
| so it's entirely appropriate for this site. Normally done on
| hawks, this project showed it would work with eagles too.
|
| https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hack#dictionary-e...
| fallinghawks wrote:
| The Cooper's hawk is known to falconers and rehabbers as
| fitting perfectly inside a (clean) Pringles can. ;)
|
| I must correct you on hacking, though. This process starts
| with just-fledged raptors, already grown to full size, fully
| feathered, but raised in closed quarters. They are put in a
| shelter surrounded by plenty of space for flying where they
| can see the outdoors, and they are fed daily for a few days
| to acclimate. Then the shelter is opened and they're allowed
| to explore. Food continues to be provided daily. The day that
| one of the birds doesn't come back for its daily feeding
| indicates it has caught something on its own, and is ready to
| be recaptured and trained as a falconry bird.
|
| This process allows the birds to learn flying and hunting as
| if they were wild raptors. It reduces certain negative
| behaviors you get in human-imprinted birds, and gives them
| "street smarts" i.e. recognizing and avoiding other
| predators. These days of course we put telemetry tags on them
| so they're easy to locate and recover.
|
| As metaphor it would be training to deal with the wide wild
| world, which HN has a bit of too.
| pfdietz wrote:
| I stand corrected, or at least clarified!
|
| Back in the day of this eagle effort, some four decades
| ago, she had to track them by eye in the swamps of
| Montezuma Wildlife Refuge and wade out to retrieve them.
| Not fun, but hey that's what grad students are for.
|
| Her book: https://www.amazon.com/Return-Sky-Surprising-
| Eaglets-Restore...
|
| The last effort to reintroduce bald eagles in the US was
| wound down in Tennessee in 2003. Today they're everywhere
| and are off the endangered species list. I see them quite
| often when out birding in the Finger Lakes of New York.
| fallinghawks wrote:
| I was driving from Albany to Binghamton last week and
| spotted my first BE in the wild over 88. Fully mature,
| bright white head and tail. I'm into hawks and falcons
| and don't go out of my way to look for BEs, so it was
| lucky, and pretty neat.
|
| In the Bay Area where I normally live we've had bald
| eagles nesting in at least 2 locations -- Crystal Springs
| reservoir, and next to a middle school in Milpitas, which
| is rather surprising considering how suburban Milpitas
| is.
| deadbabe wrote:
| It's cool but I'm wondering why isn't this an Instagram page or
| something. I'd follow this.
| chedar wrote:
| IG: https://www.instagram.com/owls_in_towels other options on
| the about page.
| wila wrote:
| Also on mastodon:
|
| https://earthstream.social/@owlsintowels
| hungmung wrote:
| I've had to do this several times, it's really the best way to
| handle birds and bats that get into your home -- just toss the
| towel on top of it and pick it up. Another trick if a bird flies
| into your window and stuns itself, you can pick it up with a
| towel and place it in a (closed) cardboard box outside in the
| shade so they can recover without a ton of sensory
| input/stressors, you just have to make sure predators don't get
| into it.
|
| (If you ever have to relocate a bat, don't just leave them on the
| ground, they can't take off from there and will almost certainly
| die. Put them in a tree or somewhere higher up)
| indoorcat wrote:
| As a PSA: if you're in North America, do not handle bats. They
| are the primary rabies vector and due to their tiny sharp
| teeth, it is possible to be bitten unknowingly. Rabies is
| (almost) 100% fatal once you have symptoms. Leave it to the
| professionals who are vaccinated and know how to handle them
| safely. In the US, local animal control can usually help.
| masnick wrote:
| The footer lol
|
| > 2022-2025 Owl Rights Reserved
| sentrysapper wrote:
| this site is a hoot
| simpaticoder wrote:
| If only owls in towels needed something to bite on, like dowels.
| julianz wrote:
| They could perch on the dowels once dry...
| simpaticoder wrote:
| No, they perch on trowels.
| D-Coder wrote:
| You're thinking of fowls.
| Caelus9 wrote:
| Such cute owls! Do they need to be wrapped in a towel because it
| gives them a sense of security? Just like babies, they sleep
| better when wrapped up tightly. Rescuing small animals is such a
| meaningful thing to do.
| pavon wrote:
| Burritoing a bird is a safe and relatively easy way to restrain
| it while handling it. It can't flap its wings to fly away, it
| can't claw you with its talons, and it is far less likely to
| hurt itself resisting. And yes, they do appear to be more calm,
| or at least more resigned to the situation.
| susam wrote:
| As delightful as the home page is, the FAQ page is endearingly
| whimsical: https://owlsintowels.org/about/
| bitwize wrote:
| It reminds me of how people make a "purrito" by wrapping a cat in
| a towel or small blanket in order to safely handle the cat
| (administer pills, injections, etc.).
|
| And since owls are pretty much just the bird versions of cats,
| it's fitting.
| throw310822 wrote:
| Indeed. Cats and owls are a fantastic example of convergent
| evolution: two species on pretty far vertebrates branches that
| occupy a similar niche (ambush night predators, small preys)
| and end up with the same physical appearance- colors, head and
| eyes shape, even the outer ears shape!
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| Reminds me of this classic.
|
| How to Give A Cat a Pill:
| https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC372253/
| fankt wrote:
| In Chinese, owls are called [Mao Tou Ying ] , which literally
| means "a hawk with a cat's head".
| 0xDEAFBEAD wrote:
| I wonder how a mouse would feel about this website.
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| Mice don't use the internet, too many cats.
| sandruso wrote:
| This is why I love internet. I've never knew I needed this.
| Thanks :)
| DidYaWipe wrote:
| Owls are actually hooting outside my door as I pull this up at
| 12:30 a.m.
| arkey wrote:
| You should have waited 4 more minutes to post this.
| bandedetrappes wrote:
| This is such a missed opportunity to name the site "BurritOwls" !
| lippihom wrote:
| Love it.
| rob74 wrote:
| Cute! But they should add a feature so you can use the images via
| an API, similar to PlaceKitten (which seems to be defunct now).
| tarkin2 wrote:
| The sober spiritual successor to
| https://www.tumblr.com/hungoverowls I assume
| vldr wrote:
| I wonder what's next... owls with runny bowels?
| vitorfrois wrote:
| Unexpected hahah so cute
| fitsumbelay wrote:
| This is making my day. Gracias, OP. Muchas gracias.
| uneekname wrote:
| I'm not seeing the link on this page, but I believe this popular
| fediverse account[0] is run by the same folks
|
| [0] https://earthstream.social/@owlsintowels
| rcastellotti wrote:
| add this to your <SHELL>rc for the best experience
| https://paste.sr.ht/~rcastellotti/6fd79ed622e1c426be35f3f038...
| lenerdenator wrote:
| It's like a cat in a purrito.
|
| Owls are like the cats of the bird world. It's too bad they don't
| get to talk. I think they'd have a lot to talk about... night
| time hunting, the size of mice and other rodentia,
| hairballs/pellets...
| ColinWright wrote:
| Going to this page:
|
| https://owlsintowels.org/gallery/
|
| Finishes with:
|
| _" That's owl the posts"_
|
| Yes, this is the internet/web I needed today.
| shellerik wrote:
| "Owl rights reserved"
| rekabis wrote:
| "Would you like a moist owlette?"
| stefanka wrote:
| One mentioned glue traps. What's that and why is it used? Sounds
| like a horrible way to catch birds.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _One mentioned glue traps. What's that and why is it used?_
|
| Glue traps are used to catch mice and rats. The owl sees its
| prey struggling in the trap, and tries to eat it.
|
| Many birds of prey die due to eating poisoned rats and mice.
| Most famously, Flaco, who escaped from the Central Park zoo and
| entertained New Yorkers for months before eating a poisoned
| rat.
| ayrtondesozzla wrote:
| > A+ FACILITIES WOULD STAY AGAIN
|
| Ok ok, you got me! Delightful!
| ayrtondesozzla wrote:
| Question - what is the lowest cost way to do something like this?
| Imagine one was prepared to go in whatever direction, regardless
| of difficulty. Can the pros weigh in here?
| mortenjorck wrote:
| This is the kind of project that always used to be its own
| website, but these days largely exists only on a social media
| platform where it's stuffed between other content and the usual
| barrage of ads.
|
| Which is a roundabout way of saying: I love that this is a
| _website._
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(page generated 2025-05-27 23:02 UTC)