Getting Ready to Go

We thought one of the owlets would go tonight. He sat in the entrance for a good while at dusk, with his feet perched on the outside rim of the hole. He looked down, up, and all around, getting a good look at his surroundings. But in the end, two successive feeding parents came, and he stepped back inside, seemingly having decided that another night of food inside the box was a good idea. Shortly afterwards, there was quite a scramble inside the box for position near the door. But later all three settled down on the box floor, content to just wait for what was to come.

According to Gehlbach, owlets lose a bit of weight in the last week or so in the box. He speculates that this may be due to less food being available later in the season, but also because parents may withhold food in order to encourage fledging.

We hope they choose to fledge soon. They are definitely due, as the average is around 26-30 days (27.7 +/- 1.8 for you statistical types). It's time for the next stage of their lives to begin!