Maybe this encounter has a different text for the right location, too. If the different text in Raven Feather Crumbles Away really gets triggered by location, that is. My bet for the Owl is the Quad. And the "raging storm and the scent of clean rain" from Drifting Hawk Feather, I dunno. Docks perhaps?
Blind guess: Something happens if you hit the "right location"-encounters for raven, owl and hawk while all three effects are active.
I just got the Perception XP result when choosing all combat options with Guiding Wind active. So maybe Guiding Wind overrides what choices you actually make here.
I got the perception XP without guiding wind, running away and walking away. It was my second owl feather, and instead of being 'hard to get worked up about' it 'feels like it answered some kind of question' or something. I didn't realize it was new text until I came to the wiki to doublecheck. I'll try to duplicate it.
So, it looks like the 'seems lonely' message may be the unlock message for the result that gives two kinds of XP. I guess hawk = fight, raven = item, owl = stats makes some sense.
I got 4 XP in Perception instead of 3 with the "in-focus" message. I don't know if that's because it scales with your stats, or because I got a big, big +1 XP bonus for having an owl's mask equipped.