Busy

We've had a busy week and haven't updated much. Mrs. Owl is working on a decent-sized bird, which is now cached in the box. She splits her time between eating from it and incubating the eggs. You can see the bird in the third picture.

It's Four, And a Bird

On Sunday the 28th, Mrs. Owl spent all day in the box. She did give us a glimpse that clearly showed 4 eggs in the box (second photo).
In the eveing, she went up at 8pm, and left from 8:06-8:17 pm. She is taking shorter and shorter breaks.

Mr. Owl started feeding her soon after she got back. He fed her at 8:26, 8:29, 8:39 (moth), 8:48 (spider), 9:21 (lizard), 1:30am (bird). You can see the bird delivered in the first photo. We can't tell what species it is, as it is too ruffled, and is likely missing its head. She proceeded to eat it, and continued munching on it over next 1.5 hours. She received no other food deliveries until 7:06am (lizard or grasshopper).
Her morning break was from 6:06-6:12 Monday morning. Very short.
She spent all day incubating and turning the eggs, and preening, which is all she does all day.

Possibly Four Eggs

We may have 4 eggs. This snapshot seems to show a shadow on the leftmost egg that could be a 4th egg. We'll have to hope for a reshuffling of the eggs so we can get a better view.

During the night, Mrs. Owl had an interesting encounter with a cockroach that got in the nestbox. She noticed it, and tracked it (photo 2), and then tried to lunge for it (photo 3). But the perches seemed to get in the way, and it escaped out the top of the door.
Mrs. Owl had a fairly ordinary night, however, with no feedings after midnight. She did leave from 12:00-12:08am, so perhaps she was given some food then. Her morning outing was from 6:08-6:32, a bit earlier than usual.

Incubation Continues

Mrs. Owl is continuing her incubation with relatively few feedings from Mr. Owl. Last night, she was only fed 3 times after midnight (3:50, 6:02, and 6:30). However, she did leave for 15 minutes in the middle of the night (4:19), so she may have gone out to share a larger meal, such as a bird or rodent. She took her morning outing from 6:55 to 7:09 am.
She spent a typical day in the box, preening, turning around, and dozing. I noticed that she seems to doze in 1 / 2 hour doses, then moves around for a while or preens, and then dozes again.
Saturday evening, she left for half an hour, from 8:01 to 8:32. It looked like she had 3 eggs, but they are pretty close to the bottom of the view, so we can't be sure whether or not she laid a 4th today. She had been laying one every 2 days up through March 25th, so if a 4th were to be laid, today would have been the expected date. But we have seen variation and delays in the past, so nothing is certain.
This evening (Saturday), so far, she has been fed 5 times, in two batches between 8:38 and 9:02, and then 11:02 – 11:03. They mostly were too small to identify, though one looked a bit bigger, perhaps grasshopper-sized.

Looks Like Three

This shot from an overnight food delivery looks like three eggs. One is a little forward, mostly off-camera, but it does look like an egg-shaped shadow.

Three?

There are two bits of news tonight. First, we believe there are now three eggs. The last picture in the group shows that most convincingly, although it could be just a shadow of something else.

The second news is that Mr. Owl has started feeding his mate, and she appears to be in 24x7 incubation mode. She left only once Wednesday morning, for an hour from 5:52 to 7:06 am She was in the box all day, never going up into the entranceway, except to leave for 25 minutes from 8:19 to 8:45 pm. She has been in the box all evening so far, the first pre-midnight incubation session. Mr. Owl was very diligent, feeding her 5 times in 25 minutes, between 9:05 and 9:30. It appeared to be small items like insects, as we only once got a glimpse of anything much in her bill. However, whatever cache of food he had discovered dried up, as he only came back for one more feeding, this between 11:00 and midnight.
Stay tuned. Hopefully we'll get a better look at the eggs when she leaves for her morning outing.

Eyes

Mrs. Owl spent most of the day in the box, returning at 12:35 am. She did a lot of preening. You can see in the last photo how she closes her eyes while she preens. This is very important, for her eyes are her life. As a predator, if she suffered an eye injury, even if temporary, it could be fatal, as she would have great difficulty hunting. I've put some good pictures of eyes in tonight's blog.

Actually, for the next 6 weeks, she is mostly off the hook, as her mate will be doing most or all of the hunting once she starts incubating 24 hours a day. He is not yet coming to the box with food, so it is not yet clear whether she is still doing her own hunting. She left for 2 periods after midnight, from 2:12 – 3:58 am, and from 5:50 – 7:02 a.m. During this time, she may have hunted, or she may have just gone out to receive some food that her mate had found. This combined with her long break from sunset to 12:35 a.m. at the beginning of the night would have given her over 7 hours to hunt.

During the day, she sat in the entryway once from 3:23 – 3:29pm, and then again at 7:07 pm before her 7:47 pm departure. Tonight was cloudy, so 7:47 served as dusk. We had a big rainstorm tonight, and she stayed out in it. This is the second time she has stayed out in a big downpour. She doesn't seem to use the box as shelter from rain, as one would think she would. It doesn't seem that she could do much hunting in the rain, and why would she want to be out in it? Perhaps she shields herself under a leaf canopy or an overhanging branch. However, the wind in tonight's rain would have still rendered her pretty wet. Only she knows. Maybe cockroaches come out in the rain and make for good snacks.

Still only 2 eggs. If she lays more, the next will probably come tomorrow. 2 days apart is quite normal.

Two Eggs

Mrs. Owl was out all of last night, from 8:06 pm Monday night until 5:45 am Tuesday morning. The first photo shows her returning. She spent all day incubating and turning the egg. Occasionally she preened her feathers. Sometime between 7:23 am and 4:36 pm she laid another egg. She never got off the first egg long enough for us to see exactly when in that stretch the second egg was laid.

Tonight, she left around sunset, and hasn't been back in 4 hours so far.

Monday night was a cold night for spring, dipping into the upper forties, so she probably hasn't started incubating the eggs in earnest. Once she starts incubating them, she will only take short 5-20 minute morning and evening breaks, relying entirely on her partner for hunting.

In our experience, full-time incubation usually starts with the second egg, so tonight may be the last night she spends any significant time outside the box.


Unlike some birds, owls start incubating before the full clutch is complete, which leads to staggered hatching, 1-2 days apart. This means the eldest owlet will be significantly bigger than the youngest at first. This, combined with the owls' tendency to feed the most aggressive, means that if the food supply ends up being disappointingly small, the youngest will probably starve. Luckily, this year, the abundant rains probably will mean an abundant supply of insects and reptiles, and all hatched will probably make it.

This strategy allows owls to maximize brood size without knowing in advance how good the food supply is going to be. The youngest ones are a reproductive bonus, if the food supply ends up being average to good. But in a bad year, while some may die, it ensures that at least some get enough food to survive and fledge. The alternative could be starvation for everyone in a famine. A seemingly harsh strategy, but in nature, whatever strategy produces the largest number over time will tend to flood out the rest of the strategies, just by sheer exponential math. This is the basic mechanism of evolution: It's not really survival of the fittest. It's flooding of the gene pool by the reproductive strategies that produce the most surviving offspring, generation after generation. They do have to be fit enough to survive to reproduce and pass on an above average batch of youngsters, hence the notion of fitness. But it's really a game of numbers, not strength.

It's not all quite so cold and calculating as the previous description suggests. We have observed owls ignoring taller offspring and pushing down to feed smaller ones. But we haven't really experienced a year of famine, and our friend Chris Johnson has experienced young owls dying and becoming food for their siblings.

An egg and a bird

Sometime this afternoon, Mrs.Owl laid an egg. We think there was a photo from about 2:10pm in which there was no egg, and then at about 4:02pm, you can clearly see an egg.
Also visible in this photo is a bird in Mrs. Owl's mouth. We haven't had time to review last night's photos to see when it was brought in, or what species it may be.

Wet Morning

Mrs. Owl just returned to the box about 7:34am after enduring a huge thunderstorm outside the box. We have no idea why she didn't just return to the box before the storm started. Those are raindrops on the glass that she brought in on her body.

Interesting Photos from Today

In the first, you can see her "ear" tufts in reaction to my stepping out into the yard. She had been in the doorway, and I didn't realize it. She dropped down. However, she was back in the door watching the morning a few minutes later.

In the second picture, she is stretching up just before she climbs onto the upper perch, using her wings as leverage.

In the third picture, she watches from a recessed position. I think she really likes this upper perch.

Here for the Day

Mrs. Owl showed up at 11:32 on March 16th, after 2 full days absence. She spent about 25 minutes in the box, rearranging the nest floor. She returned at 12:56am for 12 more minutes, and then stayed out all night until 7:24 am on the 17th. She is still out hunting at night, and will do so until she (hopefully) lays and starts sitting on eggs.
She stayed all day, sitting up in the entryway a few times during the day. She left at 7:53pm, returning an hour later at 8:51, but only for 6 minutes. Right now she is out of the box, hopefully on a St. Patty's Day date with Mr. Owl. We hope to find her in the box in the morning, and maybe with an egg.

Nobody home

Nobody visited the box last night. We'll probably have to wait and see what happens tonight.

Here To Stay?

Sunday morning we woke to find Mrs. Owl in the box, probably to stay put for the day! She paid us a brief visit Saturday night at about 8:50pm, but only stayed a few minutes. Sunday morning, she showed up at 7:10 am for a few minutes, and then again at 7:36 and stayed all day. She spent quite a while firmly planted on the top perch (thanks Max for that idea!).

We've had a few brief visits by wasps, too. Hopefully they won't decide to try to set up shop in there.

She stayed all day, even showing herself in the opening a couple of times. At 7:55pm she left, returning 20 minutes later, a fairly typical time for an evening "constitutional" (bathing, pooping, spitting out a pellet, etc.) But instead of staying the night, she only stayed for 5 minutes, and we haven't seen her since (it's now 9:06pm Monday night).

Hopefully she'll return tonight and spend another day in the box.

Morning Visit

At 5:43 this morning, an owl visited for 6 minutes. This was likely Mrs. Owl, as she moved around the nesting material on the bottom of the box during the visit. We think we've only seen this behavior from Mrs. Owl. So, hopefully, she is preparing the accommodations for a lengthy stay.

The camera was out of commission yesterday evening, so we don't know whether anyone visited last night.

Squirrel Visit

Brief squirrel visit at 7:15 this morning.

First Visit

Last night, an owl visited! Based on past experience, it was likely the female, as she seemed interested in the interior of the box, but we can't be sure. The owl arrived at about 7:21pm, staying for about a minute, and then came back at 7:27, staying for 10 minutes. Hopefully, the female will come to stay in a few days and start laying eggs. In our box, the egg-laying has usually happened pretty quickly. They don't spend much time setting up house.