Design

I've been reading about owls. Very interesting stuff.

Owls are birds of prey. They catch and eat prey ranging from fish and insects to rodents and birds up to fawns of roe deer (Eurasian Eagle Owl). For this task they are unusually outfitted.

Owls function by night or day, depending on the type. They have large eyes with rod density 5 times that of a human. They can't roll their eyes, but they can turn their heads 270° and even upside down. All of this serves to assist them in locating prey in dim light.

They have specialized hearing. The Great Gray Owl can hear a mouse squeak over a half mile away. Most have round faces that operate like a satellite dish to focus the sound in their two ears (within the disc). Some have asymetric ear placement where one side is lower than the other. With this, they can turn their heads until the sound is loudest and then look up and down to locate their prey within 1.5° both vertically and horizontally.

Owls are almost perfectly silent when they fly, allowing them to sneak up on prey. Large wings enable slower and therefore quieter flight. Structures on the leading edges and special feathers on the trailing edges of the wings break up air turbulence, the primary noise of beating wings. Hair-like structures on owl feathers give the wings a velvety feel and allow the feathers to slide across each other without a sound. Science is mimicking these designs to make quieter turbines, aircraft, and computer fans. Most interesting about this thing about quiet flight is the fact that owl species that hunt only fish or insects -- which can't hear the owl in flight -- don't have these traits.

Owls share other remarkable design features with all birds, but these are particular to owls. They are too complex and specialized to allow for "natural selection." They are too intricate to be reduced to "evolution." They demand -- even by evolutionists -- the designation "designed" and cry out for a Creator. Like the heavens, they declare the glory of God.