The Whole Thing

I was watching live, and saw an amazing thing. Mrs. Owl was out on a break, and Mr. Owl brought a gecko, and one of the babies took it and ate it whole! You can see about 3/4 of the gecko sticking out of his mouth in this photo.
Male owls do not know how to tear up food for owlets. Normally, at this early stage, when the female owl is out of the box, and the male comes with a delivery, he will look stupidly at the owlets, perhaps trying in vain to feed one of them the huge morsel, and then give up and fly away with the food. Sometimes, Mrs. Owl will come in soon afterwards with the item, having received a handoff of the item from Mr. Owl outside the box.
Today was a very warm day (in the 80's), and Mrs. Owl has been taking long breaks from owlet incubation, sitting up in the window and watching the world. When the air is this warm, she doesn't need to keep them warm with her body. This evening, Mrs. Owl has taken some long breaks outside the box.
We heard one bizarre related story in which the female owl of a nest box died while the owlets were young, and the male, not knowing how to feed them continued to drop food items into the box. The dead owlets were found under a pile of uneaten insects and other prey items when the box was cleaned out later in the season. So, the survival of the owlets really hinges on both parents. Mr. Owl must continue to bring the food, and Mrs. Owl must continue to feed it to them until they grow large enough to tear items for themselves. An accident (neighborhood cat, roadkill) would doom the entire brood. This is one reason our cat, Nimbus, is strictly an indoor cat. Her own health and safety is the other reason. More on this issue is at: http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/