WINNER: LITTLE OWL 67-57
Morepork soundly defeated the Barred Owl in a real surprise to most of us. If Morepork makes it through this, he may be facing New Zealand’s recent addition, the Barn Owl. Morepork is about 10 inches / 26 cm. It’s this small enough to be today’s favorite little brown owl?
Little Owl bested Barking Owl to get here today. Little Owl was also brought to New Zealand’s South Island in the early 20th century. Little Owl measures in at 8.5 inches / 22 cm giving it the edge in tinyness. Little Owl is all over Eurasia and Africa as well.
Will this flat headed fellow be the winner today, or will the charm and rarity of the Morepork prevail? Upvote your favorite!
Tough choice, both exude fierce cuteness. Unfortunately for the Morepork, for me it has an association with Liz Truss, and the Little Owl is just adorable (unless you’re a mouse, in which case I imagine its cute flat head is actually quite terrifying).
Little Owl for me!
Oh no what’s the truss connection
Just a silly joke about her wanting more pork and how it’s a disgrace, please ignore
I appreciate all the attempts at humor here. Everyone has kept it polite so far, and I like the increased back and forth with myself and each other we’ve had going on. It’s been much more fun for me at least. I like when it’s more than you guys just giving a pic a thumbs up and moving on.
I (we) also get a chance to learn about each other. I am learning about things from England, France, Germany, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand from you all. You guys have so much to add without even realizing it sometimes!
Ah this is sweet to hear. I had a really bad, unintended interaction with a mod on another group recently and it’s made me really nervous about making silly offhand comments, so it’s good to know we can be silly here as long as we try to keep it light and polite :) one of the things I used to love about reddit, and love about lemmy is that I get to chat to people from all over the world. Like you say it’s a good opportunity to expand our worldview.
I’m not a mod, but my personal intention is to make this a happy and positive space for everyone as much as possible. As long as nothing starts getting personal, there shouldn’t be too much off limits.
I try to keep my language PG since I’m basically representing the community most of the time here, and I try to include everyone as equal as I can so this doesn’t feel like a North American group. I may say something ignorant or misinformed about another place, but so far people have been polite in correcting me, so that keeps me willing to post about those places even though I may not know too much about it.
I feel it’s in everyone’s benefit to treat each other nice here if we want the community to grow and for Lemmy itself to keep getting bigger and better.
It’s my hope you and everyone else here feels welcomed, that your opinions matter, and you shouldn’t be afraid to correct someone or ask questions.
There seems to be a meme about her and “pork markets,” so I think it’s a Brexit thing, but I’ll let one of our local Brits chime in.
Update: Liz Truss Pork Meme
Ah, it’s a pity that OP went with the British coloniser name for the Morepork then.
It’s *original * Maori name, that is widely used in NZ too, is the Ruru.
I’ve called it the Ruru a few times during the contest and in other posts. I’ve been trying to keep it under one name here so I don’t confuse people into thinking it’s 2 different things since it isn’t a bird familiar to the rest of us.
The main reason I’ve stuck with Morepork is I source a lot of images from Flickr and searching “Ruru” there just gives me some Asian swimsuit model. Not the hooters I’m looking for. 😅
If it’s more respectful to change it to Ruru, I’m perfectly fine with that. I have no knowledge whatsoever about politics or social issues in that part of the world, so I’m always receptive to your feedback.
@anon6789 no, you’re all good, I was just lamenting the Liz Truss connection.
NZ is officially bictural so if you were being formal it would probably be Ruru (Morepork) or Ruru/Morepork.
Those on the left wing, Maori, and younger people are more likely to call it Ruru but older generation and those on the political right are more likely to use Morepork.
No offense was taken. I just like to be sure I’m not being rude or ignorant when possible.