The Wildlife Garden Puzzle Corner
By Ruth D’Alessandro, The Wildlife Gardener It’s been a strange month in the Wildlife Garden. Last week I was wearing a T-shirt and potting up cucumber seedlings in warm sunshine. This week, a chilling northerly wind and wintry showers are keeping this frustrated Wildlife Gardener indoors. Seeing as there’s little to report, I thought I’d set my loyal readership a couple of puzzles: Puzzle 1 – Do Owls Have The Wit to Woo You? Some commercial radio stations are running an ad for a certain vehicle breakdown service. It goes something like this:
‘You’ve broken down at night. What sounds are you likely to hear?’ (Sound effect: Whoo-wooo! Loud flapping of wings) ‘An owl’ (Sound effect: rustling of leaves, snuffling) ‘A badger’ (Sound effect: chug of diesel engine, handbrake going on) ‘A certain breakdown service turning up’.
Question: what is SO zoologically WRONG with this advert? Puzzle 2 – Fairyland?
Question: Look at this picture. What was happening in the Wildlife Garden? Please blog me your thoughts. Answers next week!
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To put you all out of your misery on the puzzle:yes, alison, owls do fly on silent wings. The actual ad uses a rubbish sound effect of Trafalgar Square pigeons taking off.
It was not actually snowing in the Wildlife Garden; these were hailstones as big as marbles that fell one afternoon in March and showed up weirdly in the camera flash.
Badgers near a road make a sort of heavy thud, changing to a splat if you catch them square on with a tyre, owls are a sort of feathery whumph noise and a sprinkling of breaking glass if they teak out a headlight. The breakdown service helpfully tells you your membership expired at midday.
The photo apppears to be two magic plant people dancing with a complete disregard to their dandruff problems.
I am trying not to look at the other anaswers as I try to guess your quiz.
#1: Owls don’t make any sound when they are hunting? Or they don’t hoot at night? Not really sure on that one. I have definitely heard the diesel truck thing. Usually scares the owls and badgers away.
#2: It looks like it is snowing.
owls fly on silent wings
Ok, you’d never hear wildlife near a road for a start unless everyone else had broken down! Roads much such a racket its a wonder anyone can hear anything.
And the picture..I assume its snowing or did I miss something?