Mother

We found Mrs. Owl outside the box this evening. She doesn't spend much time in the box any more, as it is so hot.

We're sorry we haven't had much time to blog and post photos from the box this year. Things have gotten busy, but below is a little selection. The ants are now a constant stream, but they don't seem to be causing any hardship with whatever food scraps they must be eating.

A Busy Evening

This has been a busy evening in a number of ways. After her evening break, Mrs. Owl returned with a gecko (photo 1). She began to feed it to the owlets. Merely 2 minutes into this process, Mr. Owl arrived with a lizard. He expected his usual reception, which is for Mrs. Owl to reach up to the doorway and grab it from him. However, her mouth was full of gecko, so he came down into the box. A lot of confusion resulted, in which he tried to hand it to her, as the owlet heads bobbed up and down in anticipation of all this lovely food. (photo 2). As he could get nobody to take his offering (the owlets being too small to grab a whole lizard), he left after about a minute (photo 3).



The next chapter of this unusual evening involved a fair bit of worry on our part. After Mr. Owl left, we heard a Barred Owl call in the back yard. Barred Owls are much bigger owls that eat, among other things, Screech Owls. There have been a pair of Barred Owls in our neighborhood since last summer, and on occasional nights during the last few months, we have heard their "YOOOOU-aaaall" or the full "Who cooks for you, who cooks for YOOOOU-aaaall?" song. We have been concerned that they might prevent or interrupt the Screech Owl nesting by eating one or both of the parents.
So after hearing the Barred Owl call tonight, we didn't see Mr. Owl for nearly 2 hours. During this time, Mrs. Owl went out several times, sometimes for as long as 23 minutes, and returned with food each time. We began to get concerned that perhaps something had happened to Mr. Owl, and she was being forced to hunt for the owlets' dinner. We began to speculate on what we would do if he did disappear, when he finally showed up with a food delivery. It turns out we missed a couple of deliveries that were recorded on the camera frame captures on the computer. But he was absent for over an hour, and Mrs. Owl's hunting behavior was unusual. Our conclusion is that it was a rather warm night (still over 70 degrees at midnight), and that perhaps she didn't need to incubate the owlets all the time. Perhaps she decided she might as well join the hunting effort. That or a bit of cabin fever.

Just the Three of Us

It's definitely three owlets now.

In the second photo, Mrs. Owl feeds a baby.

In the third photo, you can clealy see 3 little fuzzy bodies.

The Egg and Us

The owlets now have the strength to hold their heads up, though they spend a lot of their time snuggled up with their sister (or brother) inside the egg. Most of the day, they're not visible, but a couple of times yesterday, Mrs. Owl got up in the window and we could see the babies. We'll try to use Twitter to send instantaneous updates when the babies are visible. This is the only valuable use of Twitter I've discovered so far.
Last night, after a long, hungry day, the owlets got many feedings from their mother. You can see her feeding an owlet below, with eyes closed for safety. You don't want an overeager beak in your eye, when it is your best hunting asset.
Ants have also moved into the box, and can be seen marching in lines along the sides of the box. These are non-stinging Acrobat ants, and are only harmful to the degree that they eat any food that Mrs. Owl caches in the box for daytime feedings. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do to clear them out, or prevent them getting in without disrupting the nesting, so they're here to stay.

And there are two!

Well, Mrs. Owl finally got off the brood long enough for us to notice that a second hatching occurred today sometime between 4:49pm and 8:17pm. All the intervening time, she was sitting in the way of our view. In the first photo, you can see the two fuzzy shapes (one above, and one to the right of the remaining egg.)

In the second photo, we have zoomed in on the face of one of the owlets looking at the camera. Below the word "Face", you can just make out the owl-like features (eyes and bill are a bit darker than the rest of it.)
This is what a newly-hatched screech owlet looks like.

Hatching Day!

Last night around 6pm, the first egg hatched, 29 days after it was laid. You can see that one of the shiny round eggs has expanded into a fuzzy roundish ball. Actually, it is more like 2 balls: a roundish head and a roundish body (see second photo.)
We have had only brief glimpses of the little fuzzball, mainly when Mrs. Owl has gone briefly into the doorway for a look around, or as she has preened herself.
The little owlet is unable to keep itself warm for the first 10 days, and so will have to be incubated just like the remaining 2 eggs. However, it will become increasingly active. Assuming the other 2 hatch, she will soon have a bubbling nest of fuzzy popcorn to sit on, and will soon seem to look forward to the day when she can also join the incessant hunt for food.
Normal fledging occurs within 24-32 days, so we expect fledging sometime between May 22nd and 30th.

The best time to get a view of the little one(s) is dawn (6-7am CDT) or dusk (8-9pm), when Mrs. Owl typically pops into the entrance and then briefly leaves the box. Sometimes if it is a very hot day (http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=73301) she sits in the entrance during the afternoon. At these times, the air temperature can do her incubation for her.
Enjoy the show.

Brood Patch

One of the fascinating things about many nesting birds is the brood patch. This is a patch of skin on the breast of female birds that undergoes changes during nesting in order to allow them to incubate the eggs. The brood patch loses its feathers and the skin grows extra blood vessels. This allows the female to snuggle onto the eggs and incubate them directly with her warm skin. The brood patch usually doesn't show, because it's enclosed by the surrounding feathers, like a vest.



However, in the second photo below, as she preens her breast feathers, you can see the split in her chest feathering, and the black downy edge of the feathers surrounding the patch.





Mr. Owl is still doing a yeoman's job delivering food to his hungry mate. Mrs. Owl has sat nearly constantly on the eggs since the beginning, and we expect hatching as soon as tomorrow, or as late as Saturday, May 2nd. Keep an eye tuned to the owlcam for one of the little round eggs to become a fuzzy roundish owlet.

Catching Up

Faithful owlcam watchers have noticed with dismay the lack of updates while obvious activity is going on in the box. Rest assured, we have not been neglecting the wonderful spectacle of life going on in our very back yard. Instead, we were on a different continent, observing a different spectacle. We never would have chosen to skip town at this time by ourselves, but a family wedding in South Africa and cousins in Malawi dictated events beyond our control.

But we're back. And amid jetlag and processing thousands of Africa photos we're catching up on events that the motion detector duly recorded to our hard drive. The quick version is that after various visits on March 20, 24, 26, 28, 29, and 30, she finally spent the day in the box on March 31, and laid the first egg about 3pm. After spending the days of April 1 and 2 in the box, but the nights mostly outside, Mrs. Owl came back to stay during the night of April 2-3 and laid a second egg. We haven't yet found the third egg date, but there are currently 3 eggs in the box, and she spends most of 24 hours a day incubating them. Nighttime temperatures in Austin have been in the 40's, and she has taken very short breaks at dawn and dusk. Her mate is duly feeding her insects and geckos.

Now we wait until hatching day. Eastern Screech Owls usually start incubating before the clutch is complete, which means that hatching will be staggered, and the babies will be differently sized. Depending on when the first egg started developing (she laid it on March 31st, but didn't incubate it the cold night (46°F) of April 1st, and half the night of April 2nd (45°F)), the hatching should take about 30 days. So, my guess is that the first hatch should occur between April 28 and May 4th, with the most likely date being May 2nd.

After that, the real fun begins, and the nestlings will grow rapidly over approximately 28 days, and leave the box. Stay tuned for the fun.

Two Visits

Early this morning, about 2:50 am we had two brief owl visits, presumably by Mrs. Owl. She did some looking around at the furniture, and a little bit of rearranging the nesting materials.

When we woke up, we found the box occupied, and thought nesting had started. But closer inspection revealed it was a squirrel, doing her own rearrangement of the nesting materials. We quickly went down with a long stick and tapped on the box, which sent her fleeing.

Both visitors looked like they were investigating a possible future home.

Visitor and Pantry

We have now had one brief owl visit (7:30pm March 4th). Unfortunately, the motion detector software didn't grab it. We have increased the sensitivity, now that we know the owls are looking at the box.
We have also had another occasional visitor, a curious squirrel. We've managed to scare him off by tossing tiny pebbles at the side of the box. This is intended to avoid injuries, but get the box chewer out of there so the owls can feel comfortable with nesting, and not have their internal furniture turned into wood shavings.
The box also comes with a stocked owl pantry, apparently. This cockroach, if he sticks around, is likely to become an owl snack. Who can argue with room and board?

Getting Ready for 2009 Season

Last season, we weren't very diligent in taking down the owlbox after the owlets fledged, because we were so busy getting President Obama elected. In our neglect, a family of squirrels moved in and built this leaf nest.
They also remodeled to remove furniture that didn't agree with their tastes. This included the interior perch and the climbing ladder on the back wall.

Luckily our friend Max, who originally built the box, agreed to re-renovate it. He used a natural wood theme.

This weekend, we put the box back up the tree, and installed the cameras. Unfortunately, the video capture card decided to come unsoldered, so we need to replace that.

But after that, we put on the motion detector and wait!

Last 2 fledged!

The two remaining owlets fledged this evening. The first one, in the first photo, fledged very early, around 6:20pm, when it was still quite light outside. Julia was watching the videocamera from inside, and saw lots of shenanigans going on inside the box. The owlet seemed to be playing games, and then all of a sudden was gone. She thinks he may not have intended to go so early. It was the youngest of the brood, as you can see by the extensive downy fuzz in the first photo.
It landed quite low, about 4 feet above the ground in a shrub. It didn't really move for the first hour, and we heard some bill clapping and vocalizations from the parents. They may have been telling it to stay put. There were active blue jays, cardinals, titmice, and squirrels, who from time to time fussed at it. We had to chase a neighborhood cat out of the yard, which was only about 15 feet from the owlet. We're not sure whether it had seen the owlet, but it definitely was a threat. As it got closer to dusk, the owlet made its way up the branches to about 20 feet in height, where we lost track of it in the dense leaves. The parents were both nearby, and may have been encouraging it to go a certain direction.
Meanwhile, inside the box, to our puzzlement, the other owlet slept on the internal railing. In the past the other owlets have been very curious about fledged brethren, watching them from the entrance as soon as they left. But this one had no interest in what was happening to its little baby brother/sister.
At dusk several food deliveries arrived, including 3 Texas Blind Snakes within five minutes. The owlet stayed on the railing, and made the parent reach way in to deliver these to it. Around 8:30, the owlet did start hanging out in the doorway, and at times leaned way out. We were sure it would fledge during some of these stretches, but it always pulled back in. It even took a little nap.
Then, to our surprise, around 10:00pm, it went back to the entrance, leaned out a few times, and then vanished. We did not expect a fledging during such darkness, as all prior fledgings had been near dawn or dusk. We rushed out, and turned on the porch light in order to find the fledgling, and make sure it had had a safe landing. We soon found it in a tree limb 20 feet out from the box, and at the same altitude. It must have made a level 20-foot flight, which is quite amazing for it's first foray. We snapped a few photos, like the one on the left, and then turned out the light to leave it to climb in peace. We were able to watch its little silhouette climbing the branch towards the crown of the tree. We saw a vigilant parent nearby. At some point, it squawked and buzzed us, and we knew it was time to head inside. So ends our owlcam adventure for 2008.
The owlets are only beginning their journey. They will spend the next few days mostly walking in the branches, and are commonly called "branchers." They will have a long summer perfecting their flight and learning to hunt from their parents. Then, as fall and winter approach, they will be forced from the territory to start families of their own.
We'll continue to look for them in the trees in the next few days. We'll also bring down the box soon to examine the contents, and will post photos of that. So stay tuned...

Two Fledged!

Two of the owlets fledged overnight. One fledged around 8pm in the evening, and the other around 6:20am this morning. Although we missed the actual fledging event, we found the owlet sitting on a fence post shortly after he went. By a series of short flights and hops, he made his way to the compost pile, back to the nest tree, to a telephone wire, and back to the tree.
Last night was quite rainy, and when he first fledged, he ended up on a slick fence board lying at an angle. He had to scramble his way up that board to be able to perch on the top. You can see that in the first photo. From there, he took a short flight and ended up on the compost pile. We and the parents were all watching this with great interest. The second photo shows a vigilant parent.


We lost track of him for a few minutes in the compost pile, but eventually, he climbed to the top of the wooden frame. From there, he had to take a big leap of faith and flew toward the nest tree, grabbing onto the lowest twig of the lowest limb of a neighboring tree, hanging upside down. He recovered himself, and worked his way up that shrub, until he got to the rope that anchors the box in the tree. He climbed that rope to the nest tree, and then walked up the trunk, using his wings for lift. Once he reached the level of the telephone wire, he worked his way along it, before discovering that it lead nowhere useful. He worked his way back to the tree, and we lost track of him in the dark.Meanwhile, inside the box, as soon as the first owlet fledged the other owlets, who had been preening, wheeled their heads around to look at the empty hole. One of them instantly jumped to the entrance to look around. All 3 took turns watching. One of them came very far out of the box, and we were sure he was going to fledge, too. At one point, we could see all 4 front toes over the edge of the box. The owlet made some squawking sounds. The parents may have been quietly vocalizing, too. Eventually, the second owlet backed into the box, and didn't fledge.
Feedings came all night, and at about 6:20 in the morning, the second owlet fledged, but we weren't around to see it. So, now we have 2 in and 2 out.
W found one of the owlets in a tree this morning, but couldn't find the other. We only found one of the parents (fourth photo) keeping a cryptic vigilance on the box. As neither parent was near the owlet we assumed that it must be guarding the other fledgling. Normally, the fledged owlets are guarded very closely. Perhaps the second owlet flew off in a totally different direction and the other parent had to follow it.

Waiting for Dinner

Here is one of the owlets in the window waiting for dark and food deliveries to start. We watched from the porch. The owlet spent a lot of time looking at us, but once we stopped moving, it looked all around, and eventually rested its head on the box. It likes to watch planes go overhead. Big noisy birds. It will also watch any bird that flies by at dusk.

Eventually, the food deliveries started, and I got lucky to catch this photo just after delivery of a bloodied gecko. We've seen geckos swallowed many times in the box, but never from the outside. This happened when it was too dark to see details, but I caught it with the camera on a long exposure.

In the box this evening, there was lots of activity. The owlets are practicing flying inside the box. They fly up to the ceiling, to the hole, to the perch. Obviously there isn't much room, but they are stretching their wings a lot and using them for these hop-flights inside the box. Fledging should happen very soon.

In the Door

One of the babies showed us a face for the first time in the doorway, this evening. If he sits in the doorway once feeding begins tonight, he will get all the food the parents bring, until he steps down. If this happens, hopefully he will get full soon, and go down to have a snooze, so his siblings can eat, too. Fledging will likely happen this week sometime, so stay tuned.

Inside the box, the owlets have managed to smudge the plexiglass, so the view is a bit hazy, but you can still get a good idea of what is going on. The owlets are using the interior railing a lot more, and clambering around inside, strengthening their muscles. At one point one of them even climbed the slats all the way to the ceiling and hung there for a minute.