Owl, say, to peck enthusiast according to Spooner (9)
I believe the answer is:
nightbird
'spooner' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'owl say to peck enthusiast' is the wordplay.
'owl say' becomes 'bird' (owl is a kind of bird).
'to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'peck enthusiast' becomes 'night' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'bird' after 'night' is 'NIGHTBIRD'.
'according to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nightbird that I've seen before include "Late worker" , "one is up late" .)