December 27, 2012
Once again, today’s story started with a Writing Wednesday assignment.
We asked our readers to look at the photograph below and describe the owl’s hunt for prey. These writers appealed to the reader’s different senses (sound and sight), used strong action verbs to describe the owl’s quest, and won themselves a place as the #5 Seymour Science Story of 2012!
The first author is a regular Writing Wednesday contributor.
As the owl swoops around, blending into the sky, the owl is going fast without going wooossshhhh. On the hunt for mice. - Will in Ohio
Two students from Singapore also joined in on Writing Wednesday. For our North American readers who may not have studied Southeast Asia yet, Singapore is an island nation just to the north of Indonesia, and it is made up of 63 islands! Here is what they wrote:
The owl lifted off the branch with a powerful stroke of his spectacular wings. He let a hoot slip out and ring in the air. He listened to the silent night to hear the scurrying feet of his dinner. There it was, a nice plump mouse. He broke into a dive and opened his claws wide, as wide as they would go. He felt the warm body of the mouse and forced his claws closed over the warm body. Then prepared himself for a feast. -Pollyanna
The Barn Owl glided through the air, flapping its wings in a perfect rhythm. Eyes narrowed down at the little mouse hurrying to get home. Swooping down the owl listened to the little feet of his dinner scurrying away. He folded his wings up tight, opened his sharp claws and dove in for the kill. After closing his sharp claws on the mouse the owl immediately lifted himself higher and higher into the sky and went back to his nest and put dinner on the table for the rest of the family. - Erin
And there was more. Our writers were clearly inspired by this photograph:
Barn owls look like they pay attention to where they are going because in the picture they were looking really straight. also, when the barn owls are hunting they look like a hawk because of how sharp they look. :0 - Olivia, New York
The owl might be silent so it’s prey dosen’t know its coming. So it is really silent. When you see something that an owl might eat you might hear silence then swoop its gone. That is my opinon. - Sarah, Oklahoma
Posted by: Seymour Simon
