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.