Last 2 fledged!

The two remaining owlets fledged this evening. The first one, in the first photo, fledged very early, around 6:20pm, when it was still quite light outside. Julia was watching the videocamera from inside, and saw lots of shenanigans going on inside the box. The owlet seemed to be playing games, and then all of a sudden was gone. She thinks he may not have intended to go so early. It was the youngest of the brood, as you can see by the extensive downy fuzz in the first photo.
It landed quite low, about 4 feet above the ground in a shrub. It didn't really move for the first hour, and we heard some bill clapping and vocalizations from the parents. They may have been telling it to stay put. There were active blue jays, cardinals, titmice, and squirrels, who from time to time fussed at it. We had to chase a neighborhood cat out of the yard, which was only about 15 feet from the owlet. We're not sure whether it had seen the owlet, but it definitely was a threat. As it got closer to dusk, the owlet made its way up the branches to about 20 feet in height, where we lost track of it in the dense leaves. The parents were both nearby, and may have been encouraging it to go a certain direction.
Meanwhile, inside the box, to our puzzlement, the other owlet slept on the internal railing. In the past the other owlets have been very curious about fledged brethren, watching them from the entrance as soon as they left. But this one had no interest in what was happening to its little baby brother/sister.
At dusk several food deliveries arrived, including 3 Texas Blind Snakes within five minutes. The owlet stayed on the railing, and made the parent reach way in to deliver these to it. Around 8:30, the owlet did start hanging out in the doorway, and at times leaned way out. We were sure it would fledge during some of these stretches, but it always pulled back in. It even took a little nap.
Then, to our surprise, around 10:00pm, it went back to the entrance, leaned out a few times, and then vanished. We did not expect a fledging during such darkness, as all prior fledgings had been near dawn or dusk. We rushed out, and turned on the porch light in order to find the fledgling, and make sure it had had a safe landing. We soon found it in a tree limb 20 feet out from the box, and at the same altitude. It must have made a level 20-foot flight, which is quite amazing for it's first foray. We snapped a few photos, like the one on the left, and then turned out the light to leave it to climb in peace. We were able to watch its little silhouette climbing the branch towards the crown of the tree. We saw a vigilant parent nearby. At some point, it squawked and buzzed us, and we knew it was time to head inside. So ends our owlcam adventure for 2008.
The owlets are only beginning their journey. They will spend the next few days mostly walking in the branches, and are commonly called "branchers." They will have a long summer perfecting their flight and learning to hunt from their parents. Then, as fall and winter approach, they will be forced from the territory to start families of their own.
We'll continue to look for them in the trees in the next few days. We'll also bring down the box soon to examine the contents, and will post photos of that. So stay tuned...

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.

Waiting for Dinner

Here is one of the owlets in the window waiting for dark and food deliveries to start. We watched from the porch. The owlet spent a lot of time looking at us, but once we stopped moving, it looked all around, and eventually rested its head on the box. It likes to watch planes go overhead. Big noisy birds. It will also watch any bird that flies by at dusk.

Eventually, the food deliveries started, and I got lucky to catch this photo just after delivery of a bloodied gecko. We've seen geckos swallowed many times in the box, but never from the outside. This happened when it was too dark to see details, but I caught it with the camera on a long exposure.

In the box this evening, there was lots of activity. The owlets are practicing flying inside the box. They fly up to the ceiling, to the hole, to the perch. Obviously there isn't much room, but they are stretching their wings a lot and using them for these hop-flights inside the box. Fledging should happen very soon.

In the Door

One of the babies showed us a face for the first time in the doorway, this evening. If he sits in the doorway once feeding begins tonight, he will get all the food the parents bring, until he steps down. If this happens, hopefully he will get full soon, and go down to have a snooze, so his siblings can eat, too. Fledging will likely happen this week sometime, so stay tuned.

Inside the box, the owlets have managed to smudge the plexiglass, so the view is a bit hazy, but you can still get a good idea of what is going on. The owlets are using the interior railing a lot more, and clambering around inside, strengthening their muscles. At one point one of them even climbed the slats all the way to the ceiling and hung there for a minute.

Stretching

Lately, the owlets have been stretching a lot, getting a feel for their fast-growing bodies. They frequently stand tall, as this one is seen doing. They also lean forward in a stretching pose, sometimes, and often stretch their wings, which as you can see in the third photo, are getting nicely feathered. When they fledge in 1-2 weeks, they will actually be able to fly (though more like a glide), even though the feathers won't be fully developed.
They are also, as you can see, hungry. But with warm nights returning again, both parents have been very diligently bringing food. A couple of nights ago, when it dipped into the 40's, Mrs. Owl spent some of the night keeping the owlets warm. But with tonight in the 60's, she is out hunting.

Big and Hungry

The owlets are getting big, and hungry. Now that the owlets no longer require incubation, both parents spend the evening hunting. Mrs. Owl even spent much of the afternoon outside the box. I was alerted to this by a screeching Blue Jay, who found her, and pestered her in her perch. She perched in several places, mostly within a few feet of the tree, but I even saw her do a bit of hunting this afternoon.
The owlets now have the dexterity to no longer trip over the nest material when they move, and have begun standing up tall at times, and stretching their wings. Growing feathers are visible on the wings, and their downy heads and bodies are darkening as the body feathers grow. But right now the owlets still seem 90% beak and stomach. At least to Mrs. Owl taking refuge in the back.

Four Heads

I forgot to mention that we have counted 4 heads, since at least yesterday. With all the bouncing and jostling, it is hard to tell when the 4th head appeared, but the 4th owlet is at least a day old now. Also, it appears that Mrs. Owl is hunting tonight, as the warm weather has freed her from incubation, at least until tonight's cold front and rains hit.

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/

Three Hungry Owlets

It's been looking like popcorn underneath Mrs. Owl when we get our fleeting glimpses of the babies. In this photo we can definitely see 3 little heads. Mr. Owl has been extra busy. He is in the doorway with one of many nighttime food deliveries in this shot.
She took her longest outing since the owlets began hatching this pre-dawn for 6 luxurious minutes. Then it was back to the nest to keep the owlets warm and incubate the fourth and last egg.

More Hatching

Sometime yesterday or last night another egg (or possibly 2) hatched. In the first photo, you cansee the tiny head of one owlet, resting on a second owlet. There was one point where we thought we might have been seeing 3 heads, but that is not very likely, as the other eggs shouldn't be hatching yet. Their bodies are about the same size as their heads, so it's very confusing.



In the second photo, you can see a delivery of a large food item, either a mouse or a bird. We couldn't quite tell. After prey items arrive, we see a lot of activity as Mrs. Owl breaks off tiny pieces to feed to the owlets. We can't really see what's going on, because she is on top of all the action. But we do see her head moving a lot, reaching underneath her body where the owlets are.
In the last photo, you can see Mrs. Owl getting ready to take her only 2-minute break at 6:46am. The dark object below her is the large food item she received earlier. The fuzzy objects below her wing are the owlets. We can't really see any of the shiny eggs any more. They've either been pushed close to the glass or are hidden by the owlets.
Our birding day yesterday included a trip to Hornsby Bend to see a rare bird, a Reeve (a female Ruff). This normally European bird occasionally gets blown off course and shows up in the lower 48. This was only the 25th or so ever seen in Texas. We also had a tiny baby Killdeer wander right past our feet.

First Hatching!

Last night Mrs. Owl stayed in the box for all but 1 morning break of 100 seconds, and for a very good reason: her first egg hatched! In the first photo, you can see her with an eggshell in her mouth at 4:32 am. She most likely ate it to recover the calcium. In the second shot, you can see the tiny little wings raised of the owlet. This was snapped when she took her morning break at about 6:30 am. Because she spends most of her time incubating the owlet and the other eggs, we have only a handful of poor shots of the little tyke, but we hope for more views soon. Your best chances of seeing the owlet live would be 8pm or 6:30am if she takes a break or sits in the entrance then.
For the first 10 days or so, the owlet will need its mother's warmth before it can self-thermoregulate. After that, there will be many more views of the growing owlets moving around. It's a happy spring day in the owl box!

This hatching was earlier than we expected. Hatching normally takes 28.5-32.1 days (according to Gehlbach) once incubation begins. We went back and looked at our photo logs, and found that she did do some incubating on March 13th, the day the egg was laid. Even though she didn't incubate continuously, the outside temperature was in the 90's, and so development probably proceeded as if she were sitting on them. So, 29 days is quite a normal hatching time for that egg. We anticipate the rest will hatch in 1-2 day intervals.

View of the 4 Eggs

Probably the first photo we have showing all 4 eggs and not just shadows.

Meals with Wings

Mr. Owl delivered several winged creatures for Mrs. Owl's dining pleasure overnight.
There was a loud dispute by our resident raccoons just before midnight. This didn't seem to phase the warm nesting going on inside the owl box, but it kept the humans and feline in the house awake.

What a Good Mom

Mrs. Owl keeps busy turning her eggs and keeping them warm. The first egg could hatch as early as April 15.

If you haven't had a look at the Great Horned Owl Cam lately, go see:
http://birdcam.xcelenergy.com/videoindex.html?cam=owl
and click on Owl Cam

Amazing.

We're back

Our blog has been pretty silent, lately, mainly due to demands of being political activists. Both of us were elected last weekend as delegates to the Texas Democratic Convention representing both our neighborhood and Barack Obama.

But in Owl land, things continue in blissful ignorance of all the politics. Mrs. Owl has been getting regular feedings, largely of katydids and other insects. She still takes short dusk and dawn breaks (usually 2 breaks at dusk, and 2 at dawn), and sometimes comes back wet from them. I don't know where she bathes, but it is likely either in our backyard pond (which used to be a swimming pool) or the 1 acre pond 2 doors down. She often preens her feathers when she returns from a break, especially if she has been bathing. Then she settles back on the eggs for more incubation.

We hope to post updates a bit more regularly. But until the eggs hatch, it is pretty much the same thing every day, unless something interesting is brought in, like a bird.

Katydids

The evening of the 26th was a katydid feast, with Mr. Owl bringing 5 between sundown and midnight. Mrs. Owl was out of the box from 8:02-8:10pm for her evening break, and briefly again from 10:05-10:09pm.

Then after midnight, it seemed to switch to dark bugs, perhaps June bugs or even spiders, but only 3 total. So, the observed total was 8 good-sized insects for the night. I wonder whether that was the sum of the calories she ate, but it is very possible Mr. Owl provided something during one of her breaks. She took morning breaks from 5:45-5:51, and 6:57-7:02.

Blind Snake Delivery

A Texas Blind Snake http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/uc/uc-007.html was fed to Mrs. Owl overnight. It is very beneficial for the nest if a blind snake happens to fall into the nesting material instead of being eaten. The snake then acts as housekeeper, eating any mites or other small insects which would otherwise be parasites to the baby owls.

Around 5am there was quite a ruckus in our backyard. We could hear scampering (a nocturnal squirrel, stray cat??) in the leaves on the ground with Mr. Owl chasing whoever it was, all the while doing what is called "bill-clapping".

Annoyed or quite upset, they will snap their bill making a little clapping noise. Some argue this clapping is actually tongue-clicking.

Big Prey

Mr. Owl brought something large last night at 3:26. It is too close to the camera to tell whether it is a rodent or a bird. Mrs. Owl had to spend several minutes tearing it up to eat it. She actually left the box for 3 minutes with the last chunk. Either she wanted to finish it there, or was full and wanted to offer it back to Mr. Owl.

Gift of the Gecko

Mr. Owl has started bringing more Mediterranean Geckos. These small pink geckos are an introduced species, that is now widespread in the southeastern US and many tropical areas. It is nocturnal and hangs around light fixtures, eating the insects that congregate. We like watching the geckos on our window screens hunting moths. Our owls use them as a major food source.

Nothing unusual transpired in the night. There were increased feedings. Mr. Owl has to bring all the food, as Mrs. Owl is only left the box about 3 times total, for fewer than 5 minutes each time. But his job is still relatively easy, as he is only feeding 2. In mid-April, he will be feeding up to 6, and those geckos will come in very handy.