Is
this what a luminous or glowing owl would look like?
THE
LUMINOUS OWLA marvellous fowl is the luminous owl, It glitters and glisters and gleams. It lights up the night in its shimmering flight, A vision of wonder and dreams.Dr
Karl Shuker – from my Star Steeds and Other Dreams poetry blog
Anomalous
phenomena come into and go out of fashion very much like fashions themselves,
and the concept of luminous birds, especially owls, is no exception. Throughout
ancient and medieval history, it was very much a subject for discussion among
writers and scholars. Moreover, there seems to have been a traditional,
longstanding belief in many rural areas across the world but notably in
Britain, continental Europe, North America, and Australia, that owls glow.
Indeed, 'glimmer gowk' is included in Charles L. Hett's engrossing
avian dictionary A Glossary of Popular,
Local and Old-Fashioned Names of British Birds (1899) amongst the popular
monikers for any British owl.
Nevertheless, during the past century this
intriguing subject has slipped into virtual obscurity. Indeed, notwithstanding
the countless eyewitness reports and vast body of documentation relating to
luminous birds in the past, certain modern-day skeptics breezily dismiss it as
a mere myth, a credulous fragment of countryside folklore confined and duly
consigned to bygone pre-scientific times, and thence long since discounted. As
will now be shown, however, via the selection of cases documented in my
exclusive two-part survey here on ShukerNature, the reality is very different. Something much more tangible than fanciful folklore
appears to be involved here – but what?
What a spectacular sight a glowing owl would be!
One of the first coverages of this
intriguing phenomenon that I ever read was an article by Count Louis de Sibour entitled
'The Existence of Luminous Birds', originally published by the periodical Knowledge (New Series) in September 1913,
and subsequently collated by William R. Corliss in Incredible Life: A Handbook of Biological Mysteries (1981), one of
his many invaluable compendia of scientific accounts documenting wildlife
anomalies and curiosities. In his article, de Sibour commented:
Few students delve deeply in
natural history without encountering the topic of luminous birds, and the pros
and cons of the subject are developed by the reader with a frequency that tests
the credulity of any superficial investigator.
Indisputably, it has exerted a great
fascination for any scientist willing enough to examine and take seriously the
myriad mysteries of unnatural history; but before continuing with my own investigation
of it here, I need to present a few definitions in order to prevent the
all-too-common confusion of certain relevant scientific terms:
Incandescence is the emission of visible
light from a substance heated to a high temperature. In contrast, luminescence
is the emission of visible light (and sometimes other types of electromagnetic
radiation too) from a substance as a result of any non-thermal energy-releasing
process. If the luminescence ceases as soon as the energy source is removed,
this is termed fluorescence; but if the luminescence persists (after-glow),
this is termed phosphorescence and is the type of luminescence seemingly exhibited
by luminous aka glowing birds. Also requiring a definition here is
bioluminescence – namely, the biochemical creation and emission of light by certain
types of living organism (known from such forms as fireflies, glow-worms, and
various deepsea fishes, plus some plants, fungi, and bacteria – but not birds…officially).
Pliny
the Elder, stipple engraving by F.W. Bollinger (© wellcomeimages.org/Wikipedia
– CC BY 4.0 licence)
As noted by de Sibour in his article,
luminous birds have a very considerable documented history, dating back at
least as far as the time of the celebrated Roman author/naturalist Pliny the
Elder (23/24 AD-79 AD). He mentioned one unnamed example briefly in Volume 3, Book
10 of his encyclopaedic 10-volume, 37-book magnum opus Historia Mundi Naturalis (Natural
History of the World), stating: "In the Hercynian Forest, in Germany,
we hear of a singular kind of bird, the feathers of which shine at night like
fire". The Hercynian Forest was the huge ancient tract of dense woodland
that in Roman times stretched across western Central Europe from northeastern
France to the Carpathian Mountains but which exists today only in the form of
fragmented, relict expanses. It was said to be home to many wonders, including
a bona fide unicorn supposedly seen by none other than Julius Caesar (click here to read my ShukerNature article
dealing with it).
Pliny's account of this mysterious
luminous bird (and much else too from his above-cited multi-volume tome) was
regurgitated two centuries later by Latin geographer/compiler Clarius Solinus,
in Chapter 20 of his own major work, De
Mirabilibus Mundi (On the Wonders of
the World – also subsequently republished in a greatly revised edition
entitled Polyhistor). Moving forward
a millennium, Pliny's report of a luminous tyoe of bird was again recycled in
an extensive work. This time it was De
Animalibus, written by the 13th-Century German monk and scholar
Albertus Magnus (1208-1280), and finally published in 1478 following the
invention of the printing press.
Conrad
Gesner, by Tobias Stimmer, 1564 (public domain)
Moreover, the year 1555 saw the
publication of the very first treatise devoted totally to luminescence in
animals. Entitled De Lunariis, and
written by Swiss naturalist/physician Conrad Gesner (1516-1565), it not only
included reports of luminous birds and many other types of phosphorescent fauna
dating back to ancient times but also incorporated accounts of glowing plants
(click here to read a ShukerNature article of
mine dealing with anomalous light-emitting flowers) and even luminous stones.
An even greater work on luminescent
animals appeared in 1647 – a mighty three-volume publication authored by Danish
scientist Thomas Bartholin (1616-1680) entitled De Luce Animalium, of which its third volume was devoted entirely to
glowing birds. Some of these were wholly mythical, such as the Egyptian phoenix,
the incendiaria avis or incendiary bird (which set on fire any tree or house
upon which it perched), and the caladrius (according to Roman mythology, a snow-white
bird with healing powers), but allegedly real examples were also included.
Egypt's
coruscating phoenix (image created by me using MagicStudio)
Worth mentioning is that only a few years
earlier, in 1641, a number of glowing fowls had attracted so much attention at
a market in Montpellier, France, that even the distinguished French nobleman Henri
de Bourbon (1552-1588), 2nd Prince of Condé, paid a special visit to
observe them there. One, a cockerel, was killed in order to examine it more
closely, and according to Bartholin it: "shone on all parts of his body
with a remarkably strong light". That same year, a glowing hen was
displayed at a market in Montebello, which "shone like a ball of white
fire", inspiring Bartholin to opine somewhat drily: "It is a pity
that the cock did not meet the hen; for we might then have obtained a breed of
incandescent fowls"!
More recently, England, the Pyrenees, and
the Vosges appear to be European regions from which accounts of luminous birds have
emerged – with the most commonly reported bird types being owls (particularly
barn owls) and herons. In some of these cases, they have been directly
identifiable as birds, albeit ones that glow, usually white, pale
yellowish-green, or reddish-yellow in colour; in certain other cases, the
manner of their flight has identified them as birds.
How
an owl glowing pale yellow may look
The 'flap' of luminous owl sightings that
occurred during 1907-1908 near the hamlet of Twyford in Norfolk, eastern
England, is possibly the most famous, and last, to attract mainstream public
and scientific attention, and has been widely documented, albeit with many
variations and inaccuracies. Happily, however, a comprehensive,
scrupulously-researched article entitled 'The Luminous Owls of Norfolk',
prepared by veteran Fortean chronicler David W. Clarke, was published in 1994
within the inaugural volume of Fortean
Studies, the short-lived scholarly journal of the longstanding British
mysteries magazine Fortean Times, so
this is the source that I have consulted when producing my own coverage here.
Back
in 1897, gamekeeper Fred Rolfe saw on several successive evenings near King's Lynn
in Norfolk an eerie bright blue light flying overhead. Finally, he was able to
shoot it with his gun, and after it plummeted to the ground he discovered that
it was a half-starved barn owl in very poor condition. The barn owl Tyto alba is a species well-known for
its virtually pure-white plumage but which has not been formally confirmed
scientifically to visibly glow. This incident remained uncirculated until
January 1908, when Rolfe made its details public following numerous sightings
of one or more glowing owls having been reported close to Twyford and the nearby
Norfolk village of Foulsham during early and late 1907, as well as January 1908.
A normal,
non-glowing barn owl (© Yu Moskalenko/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 4.0 licence)
When making public the following
information regarding Norfolk's glowing owl(s) during the early 20th
Century, English naturalist Digby Piggott revealed that after visiting the
specific locations in question during December 1907, he had received it
directly from Foulsham-residing fellow naturalist and principal eyewitness R.J.W.
Purdy.
Purdy had informed Piggott that while in
the company of various other eyewitnesses, including his own son as well as a
Mr Spencer, he had experienced several sightings of a glowing owl in flight near
Twyford and Foulsham. The first sighting had taken place on 3 February 1907, with
several more of what may (or may not) have been the same individual bird occurring
during December 1907 and January 1908. Likening it in overall appearance to a
lamp or lantern, Purdy recalled that on one occasion its luminescence was so
powerful that even the branches among which it had perched were illuminated,
and that its irradiance was comparable to that of a bicycle lamp seen 300-400
yards away!
Further observations of this remarkable
owl by Purdy and other eyewitnesses suggested that its luminescence was
confined to its breast, because its brightness was less powerful when it flew
directly away from them, i.e. when
only its back, wings, and tail were visible to them. Throughout the time period
spanning these sightings, this owl's luminescence showed no sign of
diminishing. Purdy identified the bird as 'Strix flammea', which today as Asio flammeus is the binomial name for the short-eared owl. Confusingly, however, it is also the name given erroneously by Linnaeus in 1766 to the barn owl, and it seems from his accounts that it was indeed the barn owl that Purdy was referring to in relation to his sightings. During this same period, moreover,
sightings of a comparable creature were also being reported on a nightly basis elsewhere
in Norfolk, at the Haddiscoe marshes nearly 30 miles southeast of Twyford, as
documented at that time by renowned English ornithologist J.H. Gurney in the British
periodical The Zoologist. Please
consult David Clarke's article for an extensive coverage of individual eyewitness
accounts from this 'flap', as well as Vol. 8 (spanning the years 1904-1909) of
the Transactions of the Norfolk
Naturalists' Society, and Vol. 66 (1908) of The Zoologist.
A short-eared
owl in flight (© Stephan Sprinz/Wikipedia – CC BY 4.0 licence)
During the early 1920s, this
phosphorescence phenomenon received renewed media attention following some
additional sightings, but perhaps the most famous example from that time period
remained unreported for almost 30 years, until the eyewitness in question, John
Welman, documented it in an article entitled 'Forbidden Valley, which was
published by Blackwood's Magazine in September
1948. Welman had been visiting a lake in Anatolia, Turkey, with a companion
named Merrick when they beheld an incredible sight:
A luminous blob appeared on a
hillside far away and wavered fitfully like a bicycle lamp seen at a distance
on a windy night…It swung round a clump of trees about 200 yards away, and came
winging, swiftly and silently, towards us. It was a bird. At least, it had the
shape of a bird, and flew; but surely no mortal bird ever glowed, as this one
did, with the incandescence of a gas-mantle [a nitrate-soaked fabric bag that produces a bright white light when heated by a flame; used in lanterns, gas lamps, and some oil lamps]. It looked enormous, though I do
not say it was; such sudden brilliance rushing headlong at one out of the
ambient dark, may have exaggerated its real size. That it flew like a bird and
shone like a lamp were more certain impressions accepted by my startled mind.
And when it came nearer, I saw that every feather of its plumage glittered with
tiny points of light, a kind of frosted fire which, without the power to
dazzle, was bright enough to illuminate the branches of a tree through which it
passed. Its wide, luminous wings seemed to beat the air without disturbing it,
for they made no sound whatever. I found myself gripping Merrick's arm and
cowering down as it approached looming bigger and brighter every instant,
until, seeming about to fly right in among us, it swerved aside and shot up in
an arc to pass above our heads.
A
glowing barn owl as bright as a lantern!
The barn owl is native to Turkey (and
much else of the world too), and although Welman's above account provides scant
details to assist in identifying the luminous bird taxonomically, the facts
that its wing beats made no sound (a famous characteristic of the barn owl when
seeking prey at night) and that although appearing enormous to the startled
eyes of Welman it was nonetheless small
enough to be able to fly between the branches of a tree collectively suggest
that it may indeed have been a barn owl.
A number of notes on the subject of
glowing birds had been published in the Revue
Français d'Ornithologie by French ornithologist Louis Ternier using
information supplied to him by Gurney regarding the Norfolk sightings, as well
as some eyewitness reports emanating from northern Spain, and serious
scientific attention had also been focused upon the subject by Dr W.L. McAtee
of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. By the mid-1940s, McAtee had accumulated
a sizeable dossier of eyewitness reports appertaining to glowing birds as
diverse taxonomically as owls, night herons, and even Australian finches, which
he published as an extensively-referenced article in the July 1947 issue of the
American Midland Naturalist.
Evidently, sceptics notwithstanding, the
phenomenon of luminous birds is genuine, but how can it be explained? Five
principal potential solutions have been suggested by amateur naturalists and
professional scientists alike down through the ages, and these are
all discussed in Part 2 of this exclusive two-part ShukerNature review, so please click here to read it.
NB – All images of luminous owls included
here were created by me using Grok X1.
Even
normal, non-glowing barn owls can sometimes appear ghostly white in certain
lights (© LeeGer/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 3.0 licence)