Monday, June 1, 2009

And then there was one

This morning, the second owlet fledged. It was quite a busy night with lots of moving around, some mutual preening of feathers, and some jostling for the entrance hole. They did some wing stretches (photo 1). The parents continued to bring food (photo 2). Then, close to 6:10am, one of the owlets (we assume the middle child, but can't know), got up in the entrance. He sat there for a couple of minutes, then moved his feet further out, so they were sitting on the outside ledge. After a couple more minutes, he flew. His nestmate looked up suddently at his departure, and within 7 seconds was up in the window himself. But he must not have felt ready to follow suit, and came back down. He was fed soon afterwards (photo 3: a cicada). You can see him gulping it back in photo 4. Why leave when food keeps coming in? We're expecting a departure tonight, but will wait and see. The sycamore and cedar elm trees that they perched in last year in the days following fledging are much sparser in leaf due to the drought. I looked for, and failed to find the fledged two this evening, so perhaps they are staying down in the denser-leaved ligustrum or live oak branches.
Now we wait to see what the remaining nestling will do tonight.


Posted by Picasa

No comments: