Politics and Culture
This is what a knackered owl looks like:
[Photo: Pentti Taskinen]
The original story (in Finnish) is here. Pentti Taskinen was kayaking on a lake, saw what he thought was an otter on the surface, then realised it was an owl. He allowed it to clamber on the front of his kayak, and then back on shore the recovered bird happily flew off.
Google translate, as so often, tells it like it is:
The bird was badly kylmettynyt.
Well yes – you can tell at a glance.
(Via Jerry Coyne)
That’s a Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula) to be precise.
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OK, thanks!
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I’m surprised Google Translate stumbled on “kylmettynyt” as it’s far from the trickiest bit of the article. “Kylmä” = cold, “tt” is causative, “y” is reflexive and “nyt” is the singular form of the past participle. So essentially it’s a self-chilled owl.
Finnish is a marvellously logical language, as any Finn will tell you.
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“A self-chilled owl”. I like it.
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Mick Hartley 
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