High Drama

This was a dramatic evening, as we had a visit from Barred Owls in the yard, right around sunset. The first sign of troubled was the raucous calls of the Blue Jays. I assumed they had found Mr. Owl in a tree and were giving him some grief. Mrs. Owl looked out at the commotion in the setting sun. Her ear tufts are up, and she looks very alert (photo 1) (her pupils are small because she's looking straight into the sun.)

But the reason for the disturbance became clear as two Barred Owls (photos 2 & 3) flew over the house and landed in a tree at the bottom of the yard. That put them about 75 feet from the owl house. Screech Owls are part of a balanced meal for Barred Owls, so this was of some concern. Of course Barred Owls need to eat, too, but perhaps they could satisfy themselves with some mice and Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays followed them to the tree, harrassing and dive bombing them. I only just missed capturing a direct hit to an owl's head with my camera. It sounds dangerous, but with much smaller size and greater maneuverability, the Jays really don't have much to fear with this practice. What they do have to fear is having their nests raided at night when the owls have all the advantages of darkness and quiet wings. This is why small birds mob raptors, and the Jay and Crow family are among the fiercest. So, unknowingly, the Screech Owls had some fierce allies this evening.

Eventually, the Barred Owls were driven back to a tree near the front of the house, where a third Barred Owl joined them. After some more harrassment by the Jays, they flew further down the street, over my neighbor's property.

We have known that we have Barred Owl neighbors as we hear them with some frequency, but we haven't had them in our yard during Screech Owl nesting season until tonight. While the danger still exists, the owlets have at least passed the stage where they will be able to survive the death of either parent. Mrs. Owl seems like she is out and hunting most of tonight. Earlier, death of Mr. Owl would have meant Mrs. Owl would have had to abandon incubation to start hunting for herself. And death of Mrs. Owl earlier would have left Mr. Owl unable to meet either the incubation or the tearing up of larger prey items. Male owls just won't do anything other than give prey items to hungry mouths. If the items are too big, or the owlets are too small to reach up and take the items, that's not his problem. It's very odd, but these males are just not much for domestic duties, though they are amazing hunters. They have to hunt first for 2 during incubation for 1 month, then for up to 7 (male, female, and up to 5 owlets) for the first 10 or more days after hatch. Only when the owlets reach 10 days, does he get a partner helping in bringing in the meals.

Additional Photo

Blind Snake

Mrs. Owl left the box this morning (4/29) for a long break, from 6:00 to 6:53. There was a brief feeding during that time, which may have been either parent. Even 30 minutes after sunrise, Mr. Owl came by with a blind snake at 7:20am. Mrs. Owl sort of fell backwards after grabbing it (photo 1), which sent the owlets into a bit of an open-mouthed begging frenzy. Photo 3 shows one of the owlets with the snake (with a sibling in front of him, facing the camera).
Mrs. Owl is no longer having to incubate the owlets all the time. 10 days is normally when they are able to maintain their own body temperature, and the eldest owlet hatched 10 days ago. So, she alternates between incubating the owlets and sitting up in the doorway or on the interior upper perch for periods of up to 20 to 90 minutes.

Feeding the Owlets

Here are some very nice photos from early this morning 4/29 of mother-owlet interaction. She spent a lot of last night in the box receiving food for the owlets, and giving it to them, mostly whole.

More Photos

Here are more photos from tonight.

Eyes Open

We hope to be back to blogging the owlets' progress more frequently. This afternoon (4/28), Mrs. Owl left the box for 2 minutes around 3pm and again around 4pm. She sat in the entryway or up on the perch several times in the afternoon, including a 40 minute doorway sit from 4:20-5:00pm. We don't really know why. Most likely, it was getting too hot in there. We saw her doing some gular flapping (owl panting), in which her throat moves in and out to cool her body.
At least one of the owlets now has open eyes.
With the warm weather and the owlets' increased size, she can now leave them for longer without them getting chilled. She left several times during the evening, starting with 20 minutes at 8:21. This, and her afternoon perch sitting was the best time to get good views of the owlets down below. She returned from her long break with a gecko. She was able to feed a blind snake that Mr. Owl delivered in one piece to an owlet. Earlier she had been tearing up larger prey items. Blind snakes are about earthworm-size, so they are fairly easy to swallow. It seems that Mrs. Owl has begun limited hunting, too. Sometimes she left the box and came back with prey items. We think we can tell the difference between his visits and hers, because she will usually get down on the floor with the owlets and stay a few minutes. When he comes, he will either deliver the prey item to her if she is in the box. If she is not, he will stay up fairly high, and lean down to offer the item to the owlets. Sometimes if the prey is too big or difficult to grasp, he will leave again with the item.

More Feedings

The night started with 2 lizards and a gecko early on. There were a good number of feedings all evening so far. It still looks like only 1 hatchling so far.
I think we haven't mentioned before that a couple of weeks ago something seems to have happened to 1 of the eggs, as we saw her eating the shell. Probably got broken in the comings and goings. We have twice in the past found unhatched eggs in the box, so hatching is never a 100% guarantee.

4/18 Blind Snake

These are from 1 night ago 4/18. The hatching hasn't yet happened here. In the first photo, you can see Mr. Owl delivering a long Texas Blind Snake. That night, there were 36 feedings! This is quite a lot more than we have counted a couple of weeks back in the season.

Hatch!

We had our first hatching. It seems like it was tonight, because we didn't see anything but eggs earlier, but we can't be sure, because it could have been hiding close to the camera. You can see the fuzzy white head and body, plus a bit of wing definition in the first photo. Also, the feedings have stepped up a lot, with Mr. Owl delivering at least 10 meals between sundown and midnight. After each feeding, Mrs. Owl, bends down and tears it up to feed it to the hatchling. This is different from her usual gulping behavior, when she is only feeding herself.

Feeding

Our busy-ness is coming to a close soon, so we'll try to blog more. Here is Mr. Owl delivering a moth. The eggs should be just a few days from hatching now, and we'll let you know when they turn from round, shiny white objects to mostly round, fuzzy white objects.

Food Deliveries

We've been trying to catch up on the activities and bring you some interesting images. Starting with Friday night, 4/9, Mrs. Owl left the box for 15 minutes from 8:11-8:24pm
Then she was fed about once an hour: 9:54, 10:37, 11:26pm, 12:22 am (big spider. photo 1), and 1:38 (gecko. photo 2). She didn't get any more deliveries that night, but she did leave from 4:08-4:11am and 6:47 – 6:53am, so hopefully one of those outings was a larger food delivery.

She passed the day 4/10 in the box incubating, without a lot of preening. She did not go up in the doorway or leave at all in the evening, as she usually does. Food deliveries were pretty good all evening.
8:32 (blind snake. photo 4), 8:59 (small item), 9:43 (insect), 10:18 (insect), 10:22 (moth), 10:49 (big spider).

Blind snakes are fun prey to watch. They are very long, and are slurped down like a long spaghetti noodle.

Still Incubating

Apologies for not updating our blog more frequently. Our house remodel has become very complicated and has taken a lot of our time. We haven't had the time to review the captured pictures and write our blog. Mrs. Owl went out from 8:21-8:30 tonight, but has not been fed in the box all evening. Hopefully she was given a good meal by her mate during her outing, because it has been slim pickings tonight.