By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

LEEDS – Pam Barker considers herself a kind of Guardian of the Owls.

Macram owls, plush owls, owls on towels.

Ceramic owls with wings thrust in flight. Wood owls mid-hoot.

The birds fill her husband’s hardware store. Over 18,000 of them, the most in one place, anywhere.

“We said, This may be a world’s record,’ half-kidding,” Barker said.

The Guinness Book of World Records didn’t kid. It has officially certified it the largest owl collection in the world.

But while Barker owns the collection, she didn’t start it. She bought the 18,055 owls after Dianne Turner, a Wilton collector, died two years ago.

Although Barker didn’t know the woman, she’s put the world record in Turner’s name.

“Her husband gave her three owls after they got married,” Barker said, gazing at a long row of owl cookie jars. “That started it all.”

Barker, a down-to-earth, 47-year-old mother of two, became intrigued by the owl collection when, in the spring of 2004, a friend noticed an ad in the Uncle Henry’s Swap It or Sell It Guide. Under collectibles, the ad offered 14,000 owl items for sale.

Barker and her friend thought it was a typo. Surely the ad meant 1,400.

But when they went to Turner’s home in Wilton they found room after room packed with owls with yellow eyes, with black eyes, winking, blinking and staring straight ahead. One bathroom was so filled with plaques, posters and books that they couldn’t tell it was a bathroom.

Turner, who was in her late 50s, passed away after a long illness. A family friend was cleaning out the house, Barker said, and put the owls up for sale for $7,000. Barker offered about half.

“I did it as an investment, then out of curiosity,” Barker said.

Although she’d never had any interest in owls or in major collections, Barker yearned to count the owls. She figured she’d never know how many there were unless she bought them.

It took four people 13 days to pack them all up.

“We just started wrapping and packing and moving,” Barker said. “We got them here and then my friends left me.”

Barker spent months unpacking and cleaning owls. She borrowed extra shelves to showcase her favorite colored glass owls. She bought display cases so she’d have somewhere to put the owl banks.

At first, Barker thought the collection might fill up the left wall of her husband’s North Leeds Building Supply store. Instead, it took up that wall, the front section, and most of the aisles. Wood finishes and plumbing supplies were relegated to a back corner.

Somewhere along the way, between the majestic snowy owl poster and the cute little saw-whet statues, Barker developed an owl affinity.

“It’s been fun. Like a mid-life madness,” Barker said.

It took two days to count them: 240 owl necklaces here, 215 plush owls there, one blue toilet seat with a green owl painted under the lid. Thousands of statues, wind chimes and greeting cards.

Online, Barker found someone who claimed to have the world’s largest collection of owl items. His topped out at 8,000. Hers came in at more than 18,000.

Barker sent her count, a video and pictures to the Guinness Book of World Records last spring. They certified it as a record-breaker a couple of weeks ago.

Barker put the Guinness World Record certificate in a place of honor at the front of the store, beside a photo of Turner holding a real owl.

Although a few people have given her items since she took over the collection, Barker has not bought anything to add to the owl excess. In fact, she’s tried to cut the collection down, pricing nearly everything in the store (One dollar for a pink owl filled with bubble bath. Thirty dollars for an owl-shaped beer stein.)

In the last couple of years, she’s sold about 100 owl items.

“My husband would like his store back,” she said.

Barker will sell the collection piece-by-piece if she has to, but she’d like to find a home for the entire thing.

Until then, she considers herself a guardian of the collection, custodian of the owls.

“I never thought about them before,” she said. “I love owls now, though.”

The world’s largest owl collection can be seen at:

North Leeds Building Supply

Route 106, Leeds

Open Monday through Friday, 4:70 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to noon.

For more information, call 524-3301