@Turbohot
I have some those Indiegogo funded Titanium Isolate jobbies on the way. Will report back when I get 'em.
I use the 3M foam earplugs and use the 'roll them up' technique. Works well but I have a couple of extra modifications:
Moisten the earplugs before you roll 'em up. Sounds bizarre but I was watching MotoGP and saw Valentino Rossi do this. It's a bit gross after the first use, LOL, but it does work.
Once inserted in the ear, stick your finger on the end then gently push and twist in the same direction as the rolling up.

I've also got some of these coming. Considerably more expensive but then I have a better half that snores louder than a squadron (or whatever the collective noun is) of road drills on nitrous...

 

Yes, and so should you, or owl judge you for not loving them.


Cool, mark1963. I look forward to learn how well ones those Titanium ones perform.

I did roll the little foam ones and stuck them inside my ears. It wasn't easy, because the ear canal is a not like a straight road, it's a twisted one. However, I managed. I must say that my ears hurt a bit throughout the night, with them on. Still, they worked better than before, when I was trying to stuff them in by crunching them.

Blocking other external sounds also made me realise that I have a very, very low pitch whistling, tinnitus type sound in my ears most times. In past, whenever I went to some calm places e.g. isolated forests, hills etc., I took this ever-present sound in my ears for the sound of the quiet itself. Coming from a country where crickets, toads and other creepy crawlies are always making constant chirpy sounds at night, it never occurred to me that my ears actually have their own sound. Great discovery with the help of the ear plugs! I'm ok with that, though. my ears' own sound doesn't come in a way of my life. I'm quite used to it; unlike the owl's distorted singing in the middle of the night, which is a right pain in the butt. I'm just a bit gutted that I don't understand the language that my ears speak to me. Not bothered about the owl's lingo. It's harsh to my ears as it is.

The ones you're waiting for seem quite expensive! I won't pay that much for ear plugs, but do let me know how you get on with them.

 

Anything that can spin it's head through 270 degrees is pretty cool in my book Though if we're talking burds of prey I'm a fan of red kites personally, though any of the larger species tend to be pretty awesome.

 

Red Kite is stunning!

If we go by the size glory, I also like just a pure and simple eagle; may it be a Golden or of any complexion/type:





Even Prince Charles got freaked out by one:



Their wing span is just humungous!

Owl always looks hugely adorned (naturally), whatever its size. We see oversized ones sometimes in our village shows this end. They usually get their show pitch opposite to the Shetland ponies area; at a fairly reasonable distance. The contrast between the size of the massive owls that are supposed to be smaller than what these ones are; and the horse, which is supposed to be larger than the Shetland ponies are, is amusing to any human visitor's eyes that wanders in on two human legs and one inhibited brain. The bigger picture of the scene contains macho, beer drinking hard men gathered around those big, scary looking owls on the loose (on the gloved arm of its tamer). In contrast, you see little kids with their pretty, petite mums; feeding Shetland ponies in the opposite pitch. Parallel process at its best. It aligns with the study that concludes that the opposites rarely attract each other, whereas similar often do. Just that the owls still look magnificent, no matter what size.

 

 

They reintroduced them into the wild round our way during the back end of the 90's and now you see loads of them, truly spectacular creatures by all accounts.

 

Wow, you're very fortunate for living in Berks, where the Red Kites fly high in abundance.

Birds of prey are cool! Interestingly, some mighty birds of prey called Bob-Jack, Misha and Shiva were appointed to drive away some terrorising (to bald barristers) seagulls:

http://www.legalcheek.com/2015/04/la...sive-seagulls/


Interesting bit is the prey in the seagulls' eyes.