CINCINNATI AND LOS ANGELES – Owl enthusiasts were unsuccessful again this year in getting together to pay tribute to their favorite bird on what they have dubbed Superb Owl Sunday. The disappointment amongst the amateur and professional ornithologists was the Monday morning topic around office water coolers and elsewhere throughout the nation.
In Cincinnati, bird watcher Frank Greathorn had put together a “vote for your favorite owl” bracket and had arranged for his local group to have its yearly Superb Owl Sunday meetup at the local Hooters restaurant to announce the winner. As members arrived, wearing shirts emblazoned with likenesses of their favorite owls, they found that there were not any available tables and the bar area was standing room only. While speaking to the hostess, Greathorn could hear unusually raucous cheering and yelling at the televisions that seemed to be the focus of attention for the rowdy patrons.
Andrea “Snowy” Wheitoul of Los Angeles, a fan of the silent noctural birds of prey, was frustrated in her attempts to organize a Superb Owl Sunday potluck dinner and Powerpoint presentation for her friends at one of their houses. All of the women said that their husbands, boyfriends, or roommates had already planned to have their friends over to watch something or other on TV, eat nachos and wings, and get wasted on light beer.
Similar situations were seen in cities and towns all across the country. Bars and restaurants, especially those with TVs, were said to be have been packed. Empty boxes from big screen TVs were curbside at houses where people who seemed to completely misunderstand the meaning of Superb Owl Sunday had gathered.
Greathorn was dumbfounded as to why their traditional date of the first Sunday in February, postponed a week this year because of the pandemic, wasn’t like all the other uneventful Sundays in winter. He was reluctant to change the date, however, because “everyone has set the day aside since we first celebrated the Superb Owl with our humble beginnings in L.A. 56 years ago.”
“Who would have thought this would happen? Who, who, who?” Greathorn moaned.