An Owl Came to Stay

by Claire Rome

Rome tells of how she cared for an orphaned owlet and eventually returned it to the wild and describes the foster home she created for injured and orphaned owls

Genres: Birds

140 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Carro · Rating 5 out of 5]

An artist raises several orphaned tawny owl chicks. It is a lovely account of their behaviour, their individual characters and things she learns about owls, beautifully illustrated with her own drawings.

[Sylvie Garcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

An incredibly sweet book written by the artist Claire Rome about caring for owls, mostly tawny, often brought to her when they're very young. The photos and her illustrations are lovely, and their personalities shine through. Her writing is conversational, but my favourite passage is when her artist's eye for detail is most obvious:

"Shapeless little bundles of incredibly soft greyish down, all eyes and beak they seemed. On their stubby wings the feathers were just showing like an edging of scalloped brown lace, and the same on their tails. Their already strong legs were covered in fur-like down and the facial disks, not yet formed, were outlined with white that almost glowed when seen in a dim light." (p. 33)

An issue I had is that Rome insists she dislikes anthropomorphising animals, yet it occurs all the way through. Unlike "H is for Hawk", which I loved immensely, the wildness and sense of sharing your life with a living being that is impossible to know is missing. I don't think that's a bad thing, necessarily - Rome is rearing these birds in a different way to MacDonald and her goshawk, in a relationship that is closer to fostering. It could be described as a slightly lazy shortcut to connect the reader with unfamiliar experiences: it's far easier to simply say an owl is having a tantrum than meticulously describe the behaviour without ascribing a particular, very human motive, which I think is closer to MacDonald's style. I think anthropomorphism is inevitable for some people when writing about animals (I'm almost certain I would do it myself), and this doesn't diminish the writing as it reveals more about the way humans connect with animals than the animals themselves. It's the insistence that Rome doesn't like it, then proceeds to do just that which is strange, and at one point even declares herself to be part owl.

It's a charming book. Maybe I'm jealous because a little owl friend would be adorable. Totally selfish and unethical, but adorable, and maybe that's where my uneasiness lies.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the true story of an artist who rehabilitated Tawny Owl chicks for release back into the wild. It's an absolute delight - just TRY to get through it without smiling, I dare you!

The author kept the owls in her art studio and worked her life around them completely. Both her writing and her sketches are wonderful - full of life, interesting observations, and a lot of fun. Yes, she anthropomorphizes the owls a bit, and the casual mentions of telepathy and dowsing were a surprise (hey, who knows...) but the author really knew her birds and seems to have taken excellent care of them.

[S.C. Skillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, first published in 1979, has been on my bookshelf for several years as one of a number of books inherited from a friend. My friend loved owls so I well understand why she had this book in her collection. I enjoyed reading this account of how Claire Rome, an artist, came to adopt and care for several owls over the course of many years, keeping them in her specially-adapted studio, eventually releasing most of them back into the wild, except for one, Chippy, who chose to stay, preferring a domestic life as a housepet.

The book opened my eyes to a world of bird/human relationship I hadn't previously believed could exist. Certainly Claire Rome's account suggests that owls can form relationships with human beings in the same way that cats,dogs and horses can. This hasn't been the impression I've gained from watching numerous falconry displays; I always believed that the only motivation the birds of prey have, is the desire for food. Yet in this book are many touching and amusing stories about the most affectionate, cheeky and intelligent owls, forming a strong emotional bond with a human being.

Often enchanting, and always informative, I recommend this book to anyone who loves the natural world. My only reservation is that the narrative could have been better structured; it comes over almost as if the author is being interviewed, and everything is recorded just as she spoke it, instead of being crafted later by a book editor.

[Ilze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rome is an artist who is responsible for all the drawings of the owls that appear in this book. She ends up looking after an owl and from there another and another. The antics she has with her pets are quite entertaining - what she's basically saying is that you can have a good a relationship with a bird as with a dog! She does try to release them into the wild, though they keep returning to say 'hi'.
My grandmother gave me the book for my birthday and a few of its pages were missing. Once I came across another version, I obviously bought it to catch up on what I'd missed out ... but this meant that I now had two copies ... so naturally some of the pages from the one got reworked:

[Debby · Rating 3 out of 5]

a charmer...really well told stories about several owls that the writer adopted.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

True story of a woman who has raised several owls.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this years ago and don't really remember it, but I'm pretty sure I liked it.

[Carro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my "comfort read" books - one to re-read many times. It is the account of several owls raised from chicks by an artist. Gently and accurately observed, beautiful illustrations and brings the owls to life - and the odd problem of having free range birds in your house. Particularly gorgeous picture of one owl sleeping in a curtain bellying through an open window, using it like a hammock. I can't remember now if she weighted down the end for him.