Owloween at the Hawk Conservancy

I have always loved Halloween.  From my earliest memories of dressing up for spooky school discos (typically as a witches cat for some reason!) to exploring Halloween in various other countries and cultures (I can highly recommend a Tivoli Halloween in Copenhagen, but Halloween in New York is really something!)…

By the looks of things, it continues to get bigger and better each year everywhere.   The Bavarians love to celebrate pumpkins in all shapes and sizes, but we went from no trick or treaters at all when we first arrived in Germany, to our final Halloween there when we actually ran out of treats to give out.

In England too it looks like it just grows and grows.   Last year, I invited my sister and children for a little Halloween tea.  We put pumpkins outside to indicate we were open for treats and waited.  And waited and waited.      Disappointed with the lack of visitors, the smaller children decided it was time to get out and do a little treat collecting of their own.  As they had cast aside the costumes that we had hoped they would wear, we had to do a little rushed costume creation (RIP pillowcase!) beforehand, but given that we hadn’t received any guests, I was beginning to worry about whether Halloween in Winchester was actually the done thing?

Ever hopeful, we headed out into the dark, walking along the spooky footpath at the end of our road (I was quite glad of my white pillowcase ghost at that point, as I could actually see him!) and out to the big housing estate at the back of us.   I needn’t have worried as it was now obvious that THIS was where everyone else was…  My favourite moment of the night had to be when we knocked on a door for it to be answered by a man with the most incredible costume.  As he handed out sweets to the tinies, I congratulated him on the amazing fake snake around his neck, and at that exact moment, it moved.  It wasn’t a costume…

Talking of creatures associated with Halloween, we were invited to Owloween at the Hawk Conservancy last night…   It might have been a couple of nights early, but the Four-Year-old was more than happy to wrap up warm and head out for an evening of family-friendly spookiness in the dark.

The event ran from 6-8pm and started with a Halloween Crafting session overlooked by witchy helpers.   Food followed soon after with a choice of hot dog, burger or vegetarian options along with a hot drink and a candy apple for the smaller attendees.

Outside there were pumpkins to admire before members of staff (all in fancy dress – you are encouraged to dress up too by the way, just make sure you wear something warm underneath, it gets pretty chilly!) took us to see our friends the Burrowing Owls who were busy enjoying their own Pumpkin playground.    After a little talk about them, we were then guided by torchlight to the main arena for a bit of storytelling, and an incredible flight display from a couple of the beautiful resident owls.      I loved how the evening was built around slightly spooky stories,  all with the aim of dispelling the negative myths that often surround owls,  as is often the case when it has come to their portrayal in stories/films over the years…

Having had our heads skimmed by magnificent wings, and my photography skills tested to the very limit trying to capture these gorgeous creatures in the pitch black without any kind of flash (I failed miserably), it was time to move on to a small (slightly bizarre) interlude for another story in a dark wooded area with glow in the dark painted figures.   It definitely all added to the atmosphere of the evening, but the best was definitely saved to the very last as we were shown to a beautifully lit wooded arena, for the final display of the night.

Here a (nice) witch wove a story full of magic as owls flew above our heads, and I found myself thinking it was all worth it for this little segment alone.    The smaller members of the audience were all captivated by the story, joining in with the actions (which definitely helped keep you warm!) and gasping as three different types of owl flew around us.

Afterwards, we walked back through the darkness before heading home.   There are still tickets available for Owloween on Halloween night itself should you fancy attending? I would definitely recommend it as something children will collect in their Halloween memory banks to remember somewhere down the line, it’s also a really enjoyable evening for parents, and of course, ultimately helps support a really valuable charity…

Whilst we received free entry to the event for review purposes, we did not receive any payment to do so and any and all opinions are my own…