Two Fledged!

Two of the owlets fledged overnight. One fledged around 8pm in the evening, and the other around 6:20am this morning. Although we missed the actual fledging event, we found the owlet sitting on a fence post shortly after he went. By a series of short flights and hops, he made his way to the compost pile, back to the nest tree, to a telephone wire, and back to the tree.
Last night was quite rainy, and when he first fledged, he ended up on a slick fence board lying at an angle. He had to scramble his way up that board to be able to perch on the top. You can see that in the first photo. From there, he took a short flight and ended up on the compost pile. We and the parents were all watching this with great interest. The second photo shows a vigilant parent.


We lost track of him for a few minutes in the compost pile, but eventually, he climbed to the top of the wooden frame. From there, he had to take a big leap of faith and flew toward the nest tree, grabbing onto the lowest twig of the lowest limb of a neighboring tree, hanging upside down. He recovered himself, and worked his way up that shrub, until he got to the rope that anchors the box in the tree. He climbed that rope to the nest tree, and then walked up the trunk, using his wings for lift. Once he reached the level of the telephone wire, he worked his way along it, before discovering that it lead nowhere useful. He worked his way back to the tree, and we lost track of him in the dark.Meanwhile, inside the box, as soon as the first owlet fledged the other owlets, who had been preening, wheeled their heads around to look at the empty hole. One of them instantly jumped to the entrance to look around. All 3 took turns watching. One of them came very far out of the box, and we were sure he was going to fledge, too. At one point, we could see all 4 front toes over the edge of the box. The owlet made some squawking sounds. The parents may have been quietly vocalizing, too. Eventually, the second owlet backed into the box, and didn't fledge.
Feedings came all night, and at about 6:20 in the morning, the second owlet fledged, but we weren't around to see it. So, now we have 2 in and 2 out.
W found one of the owlets in a tree this morning, but couldn't find the other. We only found one of the parents (fourth photo) keeping a cryptic vigilance on the box. As neither parent was near the owlet we assumed that it must be guarding the other fledgling. Normally, the fledged owlets are guarded very closely. Perhaps the second owlet flew off in a totally different direction and the other parent had to follow it.