Monkey-Faced Owls in Avon – July 1941

To finish out July, here’s another article from that very same July 4, 1941 edition of the Lorain Journal that had the Sheffield Lake mystery suitcase article that I wrote about yesterday. This article is about the discovery of a family of “monkey-faced” owls in an Avon barn.

At first it sounded like some sort of genetic experiment gone awry. But as it turns out, another name for the “monkey-faced” owl is: the barn owl! Oh well.

It’s still a nice little slice of Avon life deemed newsworthy back in July 1941 – 75 years ago this month.

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'Monkey-Faced’ Owls Call Avon Farm 'Home'
Family of Seven Ousts Pigeons From Loft in
Corn Crib at Joseph Long Home

By MRS. FREDERICKA WILFORD

AVON – Joseph Long, of Long-rd, is confident he has the most unusual tenant family in Lorain-co.

The tenants, consisting of the mother and father and five youngsters are owls, commonly known as "monkey-faced" owls. The  birds recently invaded the pigeon loft in Long's corn crib, chased out the pigeons and established themselves to raise their family.

The seven young owls, whose faces resemble those of small monkeys, are thought by Long and his neighbor, Nick Schuster who is well-versed in wood lore, to be the only ones of their kind ever seen in this vicinity.

Pigeons Find New Home
Long doesn't know just when the owls arrived and doesn't know anything of their history. When visitors come, the owlets start a weird rising and falling hiss which sounds like a fierce gale blowing at a distance. If the visitors get too close, out come claws and the hissing increases in volume.

Altho Long doesn't know the beginning of his new "pets," he will know the rest of it, at least as long as they stay in the corn crib loft for he's watching the family closely.

The ousted pigeons meekly found new quarters elsewhere on the farm.

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Poor pigeons.

So what does a monkey-faced owl look like? Well, like this (below). Kinda creepy.

Adult female Barn Owl
(Courtesy www.allaboutbirds.org)

Are you wondering what their hiss sounds like? Then click here to visit the allaboutbirds.org site, where you will find a nice collection of barn owl hisses, screams, calls and wing-claps to enjoy.