Mom is Out

Site 3

There are five owlets that seem to be doing well, the seem to be a few days behind the schedule of the owls at Site 8. The are getting big and doing a lot of flapping of their wings, but have not made it to the entrance yet. With the crowded and very active conditions, the red phased mom has been spending the days out of the box. Thursday, 5/19, she spend at least an hour calling (whinny) from the entrance of the box, almost non-stop from 5:45 pm -6:45 pm. Don’t know what to make of that, but a note on record anyway. Male remains elusive when not in the pole box, which it been a week or two since.

@ ISO 800

Circle Hole Nest Confirmed

Site 8

Got this from the owner on Sunday complete with photos.

GREAT NEWS >>>> WE HAVE AN OWLET in the circle box! I don’t know if there
are any others in the box [can only see one at a time]. The ‘brown owl’ has
been visible almost daily since my last report. The ‘white face owl’ was
seen regularly until last weekend. I thought it had abandoned the box, but
the blue jays & robins alerted me to its current roost in a small maple tree
behind the chicken coop. I’ll let you know if I see any more than one owlet
at a time.

Male in Slot Box

Female in Tree

Owlet

Cruel Reality

Site 1 WARNING graphic images posted.
Well this is a log book, although its more enjoyable to post the successes, there is always the chance something ‘bad’ happens. Such was the case today when I located a dead (preyed upon) owlet at site 1. I first thought it might be the Mom, but upon closer inspection the forehead had fine barring on it, typical of owlets. Although I could be wrong. (feel free to chime in) Its been a couple of weeks since I last located them the family must still be close by. Was it the barred owl? No real way to tell what got too it. Such is the nature of dealing with wildlife.

I put the photos in the smaller thumbnail gallery format, if you want to inspect (owlet barring?) the larger version and are not squeamish feel free to click on the photos.

Texas Round Up

2 of 3 Texas owl cam sites have owls, and both have had some trials which always is educational.

http://chriswjohnson.blogspot.com/search/label/Nest%20Box%20Cam

Chris Johnson’s had parasites, and fire ants, had to bring one young to a rehabilitator, returned it with an additional foster owlet for the parents to raise!

http://screechcam.blogspot.com/
this site one of the young passed away.

Fascinating stuff!

Repeat of 5 eggs

Site 3

With site 1’s owls moving away, we can turn our attention to Site 3, where there were 5 eggs. Which is the same as last year. Her diligence made it difficult to get a count, but finally as of May 1, got word that 4 eggs have hatched with one egg remaining. Very similar to last years schedule as well.

3 Successful Fledglings

Site 1

All three fledged. The first one fledged Friday (29th) morning (8-9:30 am) the other 2 some time that night. They seem to be creatures of habit, the traveled the same basic path as last years family. They did it a bit quicker. Today they (owlets and dad) were in the same crab apple as last year (it took them 4 days to make it there last year, 2 days this year).

Mom

Dad

Children, all three are there