Feeding Time Lapse Video

Here is a project I started working on a few weeks ago. This video is a time lapse showing 16 feedings from the night of March 28-29. Neither Youtube nor anyone else on the Internet can handle portrait-oriented video, so unfortunately it is in a horizontal format and looks a bit offset. One day I'll learn about video programming. Enjoy it.

Three Hungry Mouths

We haven't yet blogged about the third hatch, which happened last Friday, April 22nd. Since then, there has been lots of activity. Tonight was the first night we noticed open eyes on the eldest owlet. They are not fully open, but the little owlet can definitely open her (or his) eyes. Most of the food brought in is geckos or lizards, with an occasional insect. Despite the drought, there seem to be enough insects to supply the reptile population, which in turn feeds the owls.
The weather has been quite warm, both by day and night. Despite the owlets being too young to maintain their own body temperature, Mrs. Owl has not had to incubate them much, due to the warm night-time temperatures. She thus has been spending increasing amounts of time either hunting or sitting in the doorway. During the day, she is often up on the perch or in the doorway, and even sometimes out of the box, as she was Sunday afternoon for over an hour.

Second Hatch

The second egg hatched sometime today. We haven't had time to figure out exactly when, but here is a dramatic family portrait. Mr. Owl sort of lost his balance and fell into the box while delivering a lizard. In the foreground is Mrs. Owl, 2 fuzzy owlets, and the remaining egg.

First Hatch!

Tonight, between 6:06 and 6:10pm, the first egg hatched! This is on the early side of the possible hatching dates at 28 days. Normal range is (28.5 to 32 days, 1 sigma). In the first photo, you can see the eggs at 6:05pm, with what is likely a small hole in the egg closest to the camera, which is the one that hatched. The second photo is at 6:11pm, just after hatching. You can see a shiny baby just to the left of Mrs. Owl's leg, and a partial eggshell. The third and fourth photos show a 1/2 eggshell, an unhatched egg, and the owlet. In the fifth photo, Mrs. Owl has picked up the eggshell and begun to eat it. She presumably does this to recover the calcium in the shell. In the sixth photo, you can see that the shell is completely gone. You only can see the two remaining eggs and the hatchling. In the 7th photo, about 2 hours after hatching, the owlet has dried out and has now become fuzzy.
Mr. Owl then began bringing food, consisting of (so far) a gecko, a couple of insects, and a Texas Blind Snake. In the last photo, Mr. Owl is bringing a blind snake while Mrs. Owl is still working on tearing up the gecko for the owlet. He came with the snake, stared down for a little while, and then started to leave. Mrs. Owl dropped the gecko, and went up to the entrance to take it from him.
As great as male owls are at hunting for the entire family during incubation, they are not very useful when it comes to domestic duties. They bring food, and if nobody takes it, they usually turn around and leave with it. We have observed this later in the nesting cycle, when the female is out hunting. The male will arrive with food, and if the owlets are too small to take the prey, the male will just give up and leave again. Often, the female will arrive soon after with the same item that she has presumably taken from the male outside the box.

Geckos Galore

Last night was a banquet for Mrs. Owl. She was brought 6 geckos and a lizard (last photo). Mr. Owl seems to be working very hard. Perhaps it was to make up for the previous night, in which nothing was brought between 9:28pm and 6:11am. And at 6:11am, it was only a small caterpillar. Earlier that night, 3 geckos had been brought in. So, last night's haul seemed to be at least twice as big as the previous night.
We have been rather neglectful at reviewing the pictures and posting updates. We will do this more frequently once the eggs hatch, which should be this week.

Reposting Feeding from 1 April

(reposting this entry, because the photos were cut off the first time.)
Mrs. Owl has stopped laying at 3 eggs, so that will be our clutch size this year. We have friends with owl box cameras who have 4 and 5 eggs this year, so all are in the typical range of 3-5. Food availability is probably the primary factor in their decision about when to stop laying, but there are probably a number of other factors. Last night was a busy feeding night, with 15 feedings, all of insects, apparently. The previous night there had been a bird, of a species we could not determine, and Mrs. Owl spent some time last night apparently feeding from it, as feathers were flying. We couldn't see for sure, because she cached it below the view of the camera. Mrs. Owl has been taking very short evening and morning breaks. This morning's break was only 6 minutes, around 6:30am. Included today are some feeding shots. The first two show a moth, as does the 4th. The 3rd shows a caterpillar. The male seems to come down into the box more than we have seen in the past. One afternoon, he came with an insect at about 6:20pm (90 minutes before sunset), and stayed in the box for nearly 2 hours until dark, mostly sitting in the entrance hole. He must have found a target of opportunity by chance, and come with a daytime feeding. So, now that Mrs. Owl spends nearly 24 hours in the box, we are getting good looks at Mr. Owl.