May 22, 2009

Last night the owlets left the safety of the box to start their new life.

Life will still be tough for the owlets as they face the dangers outside the box. They are unable to fly and will still rely on parents for about the next 30 days. Statistically speaking the mortality rate for the owlets is about 70% so we wish them all well. This year we had one of the four eggs that never hatch, so that takes care of 25% of the average right there.

So that's pretty much it for this year. Screech Owls mate for life and often use the same nesting box year after year so we hope to get more action next year.

Also, technology has advanced enough over the past five years and made braodcasting live over the internet easy and cheap. Tune in next year as our goal is to broadcast at least on view of the box 24/7.

May 17, 2009

Emma hits camera after a hover food drop.

May 15, 2009

Parent owl leaves the nest and dive bombs for more food.

May 14, 2009

We took an old camera from a finch nest box and faced it towards Joe ad Emma's home.
Here is video of a quick food drop.

May 11, 2009

The three owlets are still happy and well feed. There are many more food drops than in past seasons.

Emma is out of the box almost all day now. We did force a change in her routine when a new roof was put on our house. On that day, she spent the entire day in the box with the owlets.

Emma has always been easy to find. She guards the box from ~30 feet away with a clear view of the entry hole. I had never seen Joe so this weekend I looked very carefully for him. He is very well hidden in a tree behind the box and about 60 feet high. Both he and Emma seem to be creatures of habit and sit in that same place each day. Even though I know where they are sitting they are so well camouflage that it is easy to misplace them against the branches.

They are good parents....

May 6, 2009

Emma takes a breather.

May 3, 2009

May 2, 2009

Here is a pic of Emma sitting with her three owlets. One of the four eggs is visible; probably damaged in some way and will never hatch. When we pull the box down for maintenance after the season we will be able to take a close look at the egg. I would bet that it is cracked.

April 28, 2009

All appears normal.
Emma and Joe now have three owlets and one egg remains.

April 23, 2009

Joe brings in a pretty big songbird and needs Emma's help to take it down.
I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant experience for the songbird, but the wheel of nature has to turn.

See the vid below. Again, sorry for the quality. The IR LEDs are still too weak for good video capture.

April 22, 2009 (First Hatch)

One egg hatched in the afternoon. Three more to go.

Food and Kissie Kiss

April 16, 2009; 8:52PM

April 16, 2009

We are changing the estimated date for the first owlett to April 21.

Last night we found this large moth in the garage (see pic below). We released the moth in the back yard near the box. About 2 minutes later Joe delivered this easy catch to Emma for supper. Yummmm.

April 15, 2009

The feeding are coming earlier now. We saw Joe leave the box after a food drop around 8:15PM. Emma seems more restless. Now that it is warmer she leaves the eggs a bit more often. Most of the time only gone for 2-3 minutes, but a few times as long as 15 minutes.

Still no owletts have hatched, but we have to be very close.

The Infrared LEDs for the camera are still weak. This is okay for viewing on the monitor, but cuts down the video quality we are able to post to the blog. After the hatching, we will post some day time videos and any good night food drops.

April 9, 2009

Food drop at 10:15PM. Sorry for the video quality. Not all the IR-LEDS (for night vision) are functioning.

April 8, 2009

We are making a prediction that we will see the first owlett hatch on US Tax Day; April 15.

April 7, 2009

It's 42F and Emma was out of the box from about 5AM to 5:22AM. A long time.

Joe has been bringing a small food item or two around 9PM each night. Other food deliveries probably happen during the night, but we aren't recording them. We have not witnessed any food drops in the mornings.

April 3, 2009

All seems normal. Here is a 30 second video. The video shows Emma leaving the nest to tell Joe that she is hungry. He returns with to help her out.
See it on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQgrtohXCCE

April 1, 2009

Here is a 24 second video of two food drops we caputured this morning.
See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1hJVNoxjys

Joe should be good practice when the eggs hatch in late April. He will really need to step up the pace to feed the Emma and the four owletts.

March 30, 2009

We have witnessed several food deliveries to Emma about 5:30A and 9PM. We are sure there are others, but these are the ones we have seen on the video camera

Here is a better pic of Joe and Emma's four eggs.

March 28, 2009

Forth egg.

March 25, 2009

Third egg.

March 23, 2009

Second egg.

March 22, 2009 (First Egg Spotting)

First egg.

March 17, 2009

An owl has been in and out over the past week or so, however; for the past few days the box has always been occupied. We hope this owl stays for the season.

See 27 second video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHgZrQFKzyE

November 17, 2008

We had an early visit for the 2009 season today. Probably a male just checking out possible nesting sites. The camera is working and we are hopeful for more visits.