Stretching

Lately, the owlets have been stretching a lot, getting a feel for their fast-growing bodies. They frequently stand tall, as this one is seen doing. They also lean forward in a stretching pose, sometimes, and often stretch their wings, which as you can see in the third photo, are getting nicely feathered. When they fledge in 1-2 weeks, they will actually be able to fly (though more like a glide), even though the feathers won't be fully developed.
They are also, as you can see, hungry. But with warm nights returning again, both parents have been very diligently bringing food. A couple of nights ago, when it dipped into the 40's, Mrs. Owl spent some of the night keeping the owlets warm. But with tonight in the 60's, she is out hunting.

Big and Hungry

The owlets are getting big, and hungry. Now that the owlets no longer require incubation, both parents spend the evening hunting. Mrs. Owl even spent much of the afternoon outside the box. I was alerted to this by a screeching Blue Jay, who found her, and pestered her in her perch. She perched in several places, mostly within a few feet of the tree, but I even saw her do a bit of hunting this afternoon.
The owlets now have the dexterity to no longer trip over the nest material when they move, and have begun standing up tall at times, and stretching their wings. Growing feathers are visible on the wings, and their downy heads and bodies are darkening as the body feathers grow. But right now the owlets still seem 90% beak and stomach. At least to Mrs. Owl taking refuge in the back.

Four Heads

I forgot to mention that we have counted 4 heads, since at least yesterday. With all the bouncing and jostling, it is hard to tell when the 4th head appeared, but the 4th owlet is at least a day old now. Also, it appears that Mrs. Owl is hunting tonight, as the warm weather has freed her from incubation, at least until tonight's cold front and rains hit.

The Whole Thing

I was watching live, and saw an amazing thing. Mrs. Owl was out on a break, and Mr. Owl brought a gecko, and one of the babies took it and ate it whole! You can see about 3/4 of the gecko sticking out of his mouth in this photo.
Male owls do not know how to tear up food for owlets. Normally, at this early stage, when the female owl is out of the box, and the male comes with a delivery, he will look stupidly at the owlets, perhaps trying in vain to feed one of them the huge morsel, and then give up and fly away with the food. Sometimes, Mrs. Owl will come in soon afterwards with the item, having received a handoff of the item from Mr. Owl outside the box.
Today was a very warm day (in the 80's), and Mrs. Owl has been taking long breaks from owlet incubation, sitting up in the window and watching the world. When the air is this warm, she doesn't need to keep them warm with her body. This evening, Mrs. Owl has taken some long breaks outside the box.
We heard one bizarre related story in which the female owl of a nest box died while the owlets were young, and the male, not knowing how to feed them continued to drop food items into the box. The dead owlets were found under a pile of uneaten insects and other prey items when the box was cleaned out later in the season. So, the survival of the owlets really hinges on both parents. Mr. Owl must continue to bring the food, and Mrs. Owl must continue to feed it to them until they grow large enough to tear items for themselves. An accident (neighborhood cat, roadkill) would doom the entire brood. This is one reason our cat, Nimbus, is strictly an indoor cat. Her own health and safety is the other reason. More on this issue is at: http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/

Three Hungry Owlets

It's been looking like popcorn underneath Mrs. Owl when we get our fleeting glimpses of the babies. In this photo we can definitely see 3 little heads. Mr. Owl has been extra busy. He is in the doorway with one of many nighttime food deliveries in this shot.
She took her longest outing since the owlets began hatching this pre-dawn for 6 luxurious minutes. Then it was back to the nest to keep the owlets warm and incubate the fourth and last egg.

More Hatching

Sometime yesterday or last night another egg (or possibly 2) hatched. In the first photo, you cansee the tiny head of one owlet, resting on a second owlet. There was one point where we thought we might have been seeing 3 heads, but that is not very likely, as the other eggs shouldn't be hatching yet. Their bodies are about the same size as their heads, so it's very confusing.



In the second photo, you can see a delivery of a large food item, either a mouse or a bird. We couldn't quite tell. After prey items arrive, we see a lot of activity as Mrs. Owl breaks off tiny pieces to feed to the owlets. We can't really see what's going on, because she is on top of all the action. But we do see her head moving a lot, reaching underneath her body where the owlets are.
In the last photo, you can see Mrs. Owl getting ready to take her only 2-minute break at 6:46am. The dark object below her is the large food item she received earlier. The fuzzy objects below her wing are the owlets. We can't really see any of the shiny eggs any more. They've either been pushed close to the glass or are hidden by the owlets.
Our birding day yesterday included a trip to Hornsby Bend to see a rare bird, a Reeve (a female Ruff). This normally European bird occasionally gets blown off course and shows up in the lower 48. This was only the 25th or so ever seen in Texas. We also had a tiny baby Killdeer wander right past our feet.

First Hatching!

Last night Mrs. Owl stayed in the box for all but 1 morning break of 100 seconds, and for a very good reason: her first egg hatched! In the first photo, you can see her with an eggshell in her mouth at 4:32 am. She most likely ate it to recover the calcium. In the second shot, you can see the tiny little wings raised of the owlet. This was snapped when she took her morning break at about 6:30 am. Because she spends most of her time incubating the owlet and the other eggs, we have only a handful of poor shots of the little tyke, but we hope for more views soon. Your best chances of seeing the owlet live would be 8pm or 6:30am if she takes a break or sits in the entrance then.
For the first 10 days or so, the owlet will need its mother's warmth before it can self-thermoregulate. After that, there will be many more views of the growing owlets moving around. It's a happy spring day in the owl box!

This hatching was earlier than we expected. Hatching normally takes 28.5-32.1 days (according to Gehlbach) once incubation begins. We went back and looked at our photo logs, and found that she did do some incubating on March 13th, the day the egg was laid. Even though she didn't incubate continuously, the outside temperature was in the 90's, and so development probably proceeded as if she were sitting on them. So, 29 days is quite a normal hatching time for that egg. We anticipate the rest will hatch in 1-2 day intervals.

View of the 4 Eggs

Probably the first photo we have showing all 4 eggs and not just shadows.

Meals with Wings

Mr. Owl delivered several winged creatures for Mrs. Owl's dining pleasure overnight.
There was a loud dispute by our resident raccoons just before midnight. This didn't seem to phase the warm nesting going on inside the owl box, but it kept the humans and feline in the house awake.

What a Good Mom

Mrs. Owl keeps busy turning her eggs and keeping them warm. The first egg could hatch as early as April 15.

If you haven't had a look at the Great Horned Owl Cam lately, go see:
http://birdcam.xcelenergy.com/videoindex.html?cam=owl
and click on Owl Cam

Amazing.

We're back

Our blog has been pretty silent, lately, mainly due to demands of being political activists. Both of us were elected last weekend as delegates to the Texas Democratic Convention representing both our neighborhood and Barack Obama.

But in Owl land, things continue in blissful ignorance of all the politics. Mrs. Owl has been getting regular feedings, largely of katydids and other insects. She still takes short dusk and dawn breaks (usually 2 breaks at dusk, and 2 at dawn), and sometimes comes back wet from them. I don't know where she bathes, but it is likely either in our backyard pond (which used to be a swimming pool) or the 1 acre pond 2 doors down. She often preens her feathers when she returns from a break, especially if she has been bathing. Then she settles back on the eggs for more incubation.

We hope to post updates a bit more regularly. But until the eggs hatch, it is pretty much the same thing every day, unless something interesting is brought in, like a bird.

Katydids

The evening of the 26th was a katydid feast, with Mr. Owl bringing 5 between sundown and midnight. Mrs. Owl was out of the box from 8:02-8:10pm for her evening break, and briefly again from 10:05-10:09pm.

Then after midnight, it seemed to switch to dark bugs, perhaps June bugs or even spiders, but only 3 total. So, the observed total was 8 good-sized insects for the night. I wonder whether that was the sum of the calories she ate, but it is very possible Mr. Owl provided something during one of her breaks. She took morning breaks from 5:45-5:51, and 6:57-7:02.

Blind Snake Delivery

A Texas Blind Snake http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/uc/uc-007.html was fed to Mrs. Owl overnight. It is very beneficial for the nest if a blind snake happens to fall into the nesting material instead of being eaten. The snake then acts as housekeeper, eating any mites or other small insects which would otherwise be parasites to the baby owls.

Around 5am there was quite a ruckus in our backyard. We could hear scampering (a nocturnal squirrel, stray cat??) in the leaves on the ground with Mr. Owl chasing whoever it was, all the while doing what is called "bill-clapping".

Annoyed or quite upset, they will snap their bill making a little clapping noise. Some argue this clapping is actually tongue-clicking.

Big Prey

Mr. Owl brought something large last night at 3:26. It is too close to the camera to tell whether it is a rodent or a bird. Mrs. Owl had to spend several minutes tearing it up to eat it. She actually left the box for 3 minutes with the last chunk. Either she wanted to finish it there, or was full and wanted to offer it back to Mr. Owl.

Gift of the Gecko

Mr. Owl has started bringing more Mediterranean Geckos. These small pink geckos are an introduced species, that is now widespread in the southeastern US and many tropical areas. It is nocturnal and hangs around light fixtures, eating the insects that congregate. We like watching the geckos on our window screens hunting moths. Our owls use them as a major food source.

Nothing unusual transpired in the night. There were increased feedings. Mr. Owl has to bring all the food, as Mrs. Owl is only left the box about 3 times total, for fewer than 5 minutes each time. But his job is still relatively easy, as he is only feeding 2. In mid-April, he will be feeding up to 6, and those geckos will come in very handy.

Insects

Mr. Owl is delivering meals of what look to be dragonflies or grasshoppers.
Evening and pre-dawn outings made by Mrs. Owl are under 1/2 hour now.

Let's not take the wonders of Spring for granted, shall we?

Four Eggs

We got a good look this evening at what we have suspected from shadows is four eggs. Unfortunately, this year, we didn't get the camera properly aimed before the season started. As Mrs. Owl has put the nest right next to the glass, we don't get to see the entire clutch. We suspect the fourth egg was laid a couple of nights ago.

Four eggs is an average size clutch, according to Gehlbach's book. 2 is the minimum, and 6 is the maximum that he recorded during his decades of study. As incubation began in earnest on March 18th, we can expect the first hatching about 30 days later, around April 17th.

Visitors to the Nest Box

In the wee hours of the morning Mr. Owl paid our Mrs. a brief visit during one of his food deliveries.
















And around 9am a curious squirrel decided to have a peek inside the nest box. He certainly got a surprise when he came across an owl, of all things!!

Down the hatch.

Mr. Owl Brings Dinner

Tonight we're seeing food deliveries brought to the doorway. This is a tasty grasshopper. Mrs. Owl takes very short outings now as her eggs must stay warm.

It was a beautiful first day of Spring in Central Texas.

Three eggs visible in this photo.
Will there be a 4th?