Keeping log, vol. 7, pp. 112–119
The Owl’s keeping log, 6 to 13 April 2025
In its statement of 14 April 2025 the house promised to publish the Owl’s keeping log for the week in which the owl photograph is said to have been taken. This is that log, transcribed, with the Registrar’s certification.
The keeping log is a bound book kept in the Salon, in which the keeper of the Salon records, every day, the state of the Owl’s case, the room’s temperature and humidity, every winding, every visitor and anything the Owl did that a visitor might ask about. It has been kept since the Owl was completed in October 2019. The original may be inspected at the House by appointment.
| Day | Dusk | Woke | Case and room | The Owl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday 6 April | 7:43 p.m. | 7:47 p.m. | Case closed and locked. Salon closed. 19.4 °C, 47% humidity. | Slept from 6:31 a.m. Roused feathers twice in the evening. No visitors. |
| Monday 7 April | 7:44 p.m. | 7:49 p.m. | Case closed and locked. 19.6 °C, 46%. | Turned toward the entrance hall at noon, when the Copyist wrote its monthly page. Slept again at 12:04 p.m. |
| Tuesday 8 April | 7:46 p.m. | 7:50 p.m. | Case closed and locked. Atelier visits at ten and two passed through the Salon: 9 guests in all. | Attended to the two o’clock group for some minutes. Woke at dusk. No movement after 11:40 p.m. |
| Wednesday 9 April | 7:47 p.m. | 7:52 p.m. | Case closed and locked. 19.3 °C, 49%. Window blind lowered at 3:00 p.m. against low sun. | Inner lid swept twice at 8:15 p.m. Otherwise still. |
| Thursday 10 April | 7:48 p.m. | 7:53 p.m. | Wound at 5:20 p.m. by the Salon attendant (A. L.), 62 turns, four minutes. Case opened for the evening at 6:00 p.m. and closed at 9:05 p.m. Plaque fitted throughout. | Thursday evening in the Salon: 22 guests, introduced at 6:02 p.m. and told that the Owl is a replica. Attentive from 7:53 p.m. Preened at 8:31 p.m. |
| Friday 11 April | 7:49 p.m. | 7:55 p.m. | Case closed and locked. 19.5 °C, 48%. | Woke at dusk. Turned toward the corridor when the night porter passed at 10:10 p.m. |
| Saturday 12 April | 7:51 p.m. | 7:56 p.m. | Case closed and locked. Atelier visits at ten and two passed through the Salon: 11 guests in all. | Slept through both visits. Roused at 7:58 p.m. |
| Sunday 13 April | 7:52 p.m. | 7:57 p.m. | Case closed and locked. Salon closed. 19.4 °C, 47%. | Still. Keeper’s note: the photograph described in the press this week is not of this bird, which has not left its case this week except within the Salon on Thursday evening. |
Certification
Certified a true copy of the keeping log of the Rosen Owl, certificate of provenance No. 118 204, volume 7, pages 112 to 119, compared with the original by me on 15 April 2025.
Desmond Achterberg
Registrar
The Owl’s certificate of provenance was shown open beside its case on the evening of 10 April, as on every Thursday evening. The attendance book of the Salon for that evening records 22 guests and is held with the log.