Ghostly owls

This is a (poor) picture of some owls taken in the Keswick Museum. I was waiting for an opportunity to post it here and one of my recent posts gave it to me. This post is a kind of followup.

So I took a picture of those stuffed owls at the Keswick Museum. Bad picture, but it still captures their ghostly appearances. Add to this their gloomy cry, their nocturnal and elusive nature, their swiftness, the fact that are hunters and that they are fond of empty barns and you have a bird of prey at the basis of many stories of haunted places. I have a growing interest for them that is turning into fascination. I read about barn owls (which I believe is the owl you can see on the picture) in the Springwatch and Autumnwatch Guide and I am going to read more. Funny that the animal at the origins of so many superstitions is in fact the results of many years of evolution, which created the characteristics that turned it into a ghost in people's perception.

Oh, and there is another "ghost" on this picture: you can of course see my reflection in the glass.