Chris' Eastern Screech Owl Nest Box Cam' Daily News Archive 2004

May 3 - The youngest owlet died at 5:05 PM today. There was no obvious problem, he just became less and less active during the day, and then stopped breathing as he slept next to one of the other owlets. According to Gehlbach's studies, the most common causes of death among runts are starvation and suffocation. (Fratricide also occurs, but can be ruled out in this case.) At this point, my best guess is suffocation, though I suspect that if he'd been better fed, he would have been both larger and stronger, and thus less likely to have succumbed in this manner. So it seems that the cause of death was a combination of both factors. The other three owlets remain strong and vigorous, so I have no concerns about them.

Gehlbach found a youngest-sibling death rate of 20.3% in suburban nests, and a 25% overall mortality rate among nestlings. Further, 39% of broods of four or more lost some, but not all, nestlings. (The Eastern Screech Owl, pg. 116.) When the youngest-sibling is a runt, as in this case, death is even more likely. One factor in this is the experience of the female owl; the more experienced she has, the less likely she is to loose a runt. This could fit in with my early impression that this year's female was new. Independent of this, Gehlbach found in his study of dead screech owls that the majority (67.3%) of those dying are less than a year old, so being a young owl is hard, and losses are to be expected. (I am told that the numbers are generally similar for all birds of prey. If so, we might conclude that being at, or around, the top of food chains is more challenging than it sometimes appears.)

Because I do not want to disturb the nest again while the owlets are on the verge of exiting (the disturbance might frighten them into leaving earlier than they otherwise would do), the dead owlet remains in the nest box. This is not much of a problem because, by the time I eliminated other possibilities for the reduced head-count in the box and reviewed the video record to verify that the youngest had, in fact, died, the other owlets had begun to eat his remains. (This was four hours after the youngest had stopped breathing, so, as was mentioned above, fratricide can be ruled out.) I'm saddened by the loss of the owlet, but the cannibalism does not bother me; anything good that comes of the youngest's death is welcome.

The extent to which the adults are aware of this happening is not clear to me. At 8:45 PM, as I searched around the nest box tree for evidence that an owlet had left the nest, the adults clapped their beaks at me for the first time this season. Ordinarily, in this context, this is a mild warning to keep away from an area where a brancher (an owlet in its first week out of the nest, when it cannot fly) is present. This suggests the possibility that the adults had realized that an owlet was missing, but that they were not aware of its death.

May 2 - At 5:03 AM, Mme. Owl made the 14th (at least) food delivery since midnight. Unlike the others, this one was large enough that she had to spend 14 minutes tearing it apart and feeding it to the owlets. It appears to have been a bird, in which case it could be the same one that Mr. Owl had tried to deliver shortly before midnight. Mme. Owl returned at 5:56 AM, possibly to do some more feeding, but she was gone again six minutes later. The day was very quiet, with little owlet activity until shortly before sunset. The first food delivery came thirty minutes after sunset, and from then until midnight it was not unusual to find an owlet parked in the entryway, intercepting the prey as it arrived, so it's hard to know how well the hunting went.

May 1 - The sixth post-midnight food delivery was a mouse, brought by Mr. Owl, at 4 AM. He offered it to the owlets, but none of them seemed serious about it, so he took it with him. He returned five minutes later, but still wasn't satisfied with the level of interest, so he and the mouse exited again. The mouse arrived again at 5:48 AM, and at last it stayed to dinner. The owlets tore it up for themselves, each one feeding until he'd had enough, or until another owlet snatched it away.

Today was owlet banding day. The process began around 7:20 PM and took about 30 minutes, including time spent cleaning the nest box, reattaching the owlet rail to the front, and photographing the owlets:

The youngsters received federal bird bands 1005-19174 through 1005-19177. If those bands ever turn up, we'll learn something about the lives of these owls, but most bands never turn up, so it's a shot in the dark, and nothing more.

Just before midnight a bird was delivered by Mr. Owl, but they left together. It'll probably return between midnight and sunrise of the 2nd.

April 30 - There were at least 16 food deliveries between midnight and sunrise; as has become normal, there was nothing larger than gecko. The two oldest owlets did a lot of climbing and one or both of them has learned how to get into the entryway and sit comfortably. That position is not only interesting, but pleasantly filling; the owlet in the entryway receives all the food delivered while it sits there. The day consisted of alternating periods of sleep, and youthful vigor. An increasing amount of that vigor is devoted to wing flapping exercises. In such a small, crowded space, inevitably the flapping means that everything in the area—wings, brothers, and sisters—gets a good battering. The battered owlets take it all in their stride, never doing more than having a half-hearted nibble at the offending appendages.

There was no climbing activity before sunset today, because the owlets heard me clearing the area around the foot of the nest box tree and decided to keep a low profile. (The goal of the clearing was to ensure that there was no brush, or high ground cover, that would prevent a fallen owlet from easily reaching the tree's trunk and climbing to safety.) Climbing began about 20 minutes after sunset, with significant contention between no. 1 and no. 2 for the right to sit in the entryway. Having hatched within such a short time of each other, their instincts to climb out of the nest are kicking in at about the same time, and are escalating at similar rates, so the contention isn't surprising. The younger owlets mostly spectate, as far as I can tell. (I can only guess at who's who in the video images from the nest box.)

I only counted six food deliveries between sunset and midnight. It's safe to assume that I overlooked some, and that owlets sitting in the entryway received deliveries without giving obvious indication of it, so my count is only a minimum, but it's also possible that the adults have begun reducing the number of food deliveries in order to help coax the owlets out of the nest. (This is a documented screech owl parenting technique, the only question is whether it is already being employed.)

April 29 - There were a minimum of 16 food deliveries between midnight and dawn, all geckos and smaller. During the early morning and late afternoon, the eldest owlet resumed its climbing efforts, and, for the first time, managed to get its head into the entryway. Later, the next oldest owlet began making an effort to reach the entryway. It was a failure, but it was still a good start, because a few minutes later the eldest was sitting in the entryway, and no. 2 was on his heels. Between sunset and midnight there were at least 15 food deliveries, and possibly some direct deliveries to the eldest during the time it spent sitting in the entryway.

April 28 - There were at least 25 food deliveries between midnight and sunrise, nothing larger than a gecko. The day was quiet, though the owlets were quite active, as has become normal. No sign of the red-bellied woodpecker today. The eldest owlet continues its climbing attempts and met with great success today: It not only made it to the perch, but also managed to spend several minutes looking out through the entryway. At some point, he'll succeed at climbing into the entryway, and then it'll be only 2 or 3 days before he leaves the nest box, usually around sunset, never to return. The other owlets will follow him at a rate of roughly one per day. Between sunset (8:07 PM) and midnight, there were at least 12 food deliveries. The arrival of rain may have hampered the night's hunting.

April 27 - Between midnight and dawn, there were approximately 39 food deliveries, none bigger than geckos; most were moths and other insects. Very near sunrise, the eldest owlet made a brief attempt to climb to the entryway, but that was the only climbing attempt of the 27th. The day was quiet, though the owlets were quite active, and the red-bellied woodpecker stopped-by in the morning to check on the box again. Just after sunset, the first food delivery of the night [QuickTime; 2.3MB] was an anole. This is the first time I've ever seen one of these diurnal lizards delivered. How the owls managed to find one at night, I don't know. There were at least twenty more food deliveries before midnight, but the anole was the largest of them all.

April 26 - Between midnight and sunrise, there were a minimum of 27 food deliveries, all geckos and smaller, where "smaller" mostly means moths in this case. Mme. Owl didn't stop by the nest box at all during the day, but the local red bellied woodpeckers continue to hope the box has become available. There was no large prey between sunset and midnight, but at least 31 small items were delivered. None of the owlets made a serious attempt at climbing today.

April 25 - At 12:11 AM, Mme. Owl arrived with some large prey item, which she fed to the owlets for the next 13 minutes before giving the kids some preening and returning to the hunt. At 2:01, she arrived with the next large kill, probably a small bird. That feeding took ten minutes, and Mr. Owl dropped-off a gecko while it was underway. By sunrise there'd been a total of at least 13 food deliveries.

As has become the norm, the owlets spent the day without Mme. Owl, but she did drop by at 2:15 PM to stay with them for 47 minutes. During that time a red-bellied woodpecker poked its head into the entryway, in hopes of finding an available nesting cavity, but had no such luck.

The first food delivery of the night came at 8:28 PM, 23 minutes after sunset. Overall, there a minimum of 23 deliveries before midnight. Meanwhile, the eldest owlet has renewed its climbing attempts, but can't quite figure-out how to get onto the perch, yet. He will soon.

April 24 - Somewhere in the one o'clock hour, I brought down the nest box, scraped out the existing bedding material, removed seven weeks of grunge from the camera compartment glass, and put a fresh layer of pine shavings on the floor. In the process I found four Texas blind snakes; one very dead, and three others vigorous and determined to escape. One of those did escape, but the other two remain in the nest box to deal with any new insect populations that might come along. In the process of returning the owlets to the nest box, I took the opportunity to photograph them:

(I would like to have photographed at least one of the snakes, but they were slippery, and entirely disinclined to sit still for photos. It was bit tricky just getting the box closed before one of them could escape.)

As you can see, the two oldest owlets were the most enthusiastic, because it gave them their first chance to have a good look at the world outside their nest. In fact, it was hard to get them to look anywhere near me or the camera. I had to resort to making strange sounds to get them looking in the right direction, even briefly.

The adults may have been watching this process from the trees, as they have in years past, but I couldn't catch sight of them, so it's also possible they were both away hunting the whole time.

Mme. Owl showed-up with a small bird at 2:35 AM. She spent five minutes feeding the owlets before leaving with the remainder of the bird. She arrived with another small bird at 6:17 AM. That feeding lasted eight minutes. (If the adults look wet in these images, it's because they were; rain showers moved into the area around 2 AM.) Mme. Owl returned to the nest box an hour after sunrise, and exited seven minutes later. During the morning, a starling stuck its beak into the entryway several times. During the afternoon, a red-bellied woodpecker decided to have a look inside. I'd be delighted if the woodpeckers moved into the box once the owlets are done with it, but it has never worked out that way.

Mme. Owl made the first visit of the night at 8:18 PM, thirteen minutes after sunset. Not long afterward, one of the owlets made the first climbing attempt of the year. It wasn't very successful, but the owlets will keep working on it over the next two weeks, until every one of them has escaped. At 8:38 PM, Mr. Owl delivered a small bird, but exited with it when he realized it was too big for the owlets to handle. It didn't return with Mme. Owl, so one or both of the adults must have eaten it. All in all, there were at least twelve food deliveries between sunset and midnight.

April 23 - The sixteenth (at least) food delivery since midnight happened at 5:50 AM. It was a large item that Mme. Owl spent six minutes feeding to the owlets, before she exited. An hour later, and three minutes before sunrise, she showed-up carrying a bird. It was large enough that she had to drag it into the entryway behind her, and leave it there while she entered the box. She then turned around and pulled it in after her. The feeding lasted almost thirty minutes, but there were still leftovers parked in one corner of the box. She exited twelve minues later, 38 minutes after sunrise. She returned at 9:11 AM, and was gone again by 9:41. At 2:35 PM, she was back, for another thirty minutes. The first post-sunset food delivery waited until fifty minutes after sunset. A few minutes later Mme. Owl showed-up with something large enough to be divided amongst the owlets. It lasted five minutes, tops. The seventh delivery since sunset was a large item that Mme. spent 16 minutes distributing to the youngsters then exited. Eight minutes into the distribution, Mr. Owl dropped off something. At 11:18 PM, Mme. Owl appeared to do something that looked like feeding, apart from there being no indication that any owlets were actually fed. Go figure. In any case there were at least ten prey deliveries between sunset and midnight.

April 22 - The first food delivery after midnight took place at 12:30 AM. Mme. Owl arrived carrying something large enough that she spent the next 30 minutes feeding it to the owlets. There don't seem to have been any leftovers, and with four ever-larger mouths to feed, that's less and less of a surprise. She spent a further ten minutes with the owlets before resuming her hunt. There was one small food delivery, then Mme. Owl returned at 4:08 to feed a small bird to the owlets. That took just ten minutes. She stayed another ten minutes to preen the owlets. Between then and dawn, there were, maybe, two more food deliveries; all small items.

As the owlets grow their default posture changes. Freshly hatched, they flop down on their bellies, barely able to sit up to be fed (I've come to think of this as their "lumplet" phase). As the weeks progress, the hatchlings gradually shift to a continuous upright posture, in preparation for a lifetime of perching. At the moment, I'd say they're a bit past the mid-point of that journey. When alert, they're upright, and when sleeping too, if they haven't been asleep for long. A good, long nap sees them revert to lumps, however. Their growing uprightness gives rise to scenes of all the kids sitting together facing the entryway—that unreachable source of all good things in their lives—waiting. The waiting pays off, of course, as they know with all their hearts it must. And then the waiting resumes. Of course, with full bellies, there's time for more than that, like pondering the contents of the camera compartment, and probing the perversity of glass - a material which ensures that you can see clearly what you cannot have.

Mme. Owl returned to the owlets 40 minutes afters sunrise. She didn't bring any food; it was all about looking after the kids. Two hours later, at 9:28 AM, she left the owlets for a more peaceful daytime roost. She returned 13 minutes after sunset. Between then and midnight there were at least 20 food deliveries, all geckos or smaller. She spent time with the owlets on three or four occasions during that time.

April 21 - Between midnight and 6:14 AM, ten food deliveries were made, mostly insects, but at 6:14 the eleventh food delivery was a large mouse. Mme. Owl spent nearly thirty minutes feeding the owlets before returning to the hunt. She returned 45 minutes after sunrise and spent about five minutes feeding the remainder of the mouse to the owlets. More remarkable than Mme. Owl's post-sunrise return to the box, was Mr. Owl heaving himself through the entryway 52 minutes after sunrise, carrying a bird. [QuickTime; 4.2MB] She spent the next 16 minutes feeding it to the owlets, then set aside the small remainder for later.

Mme. Owl exited the nest box shortly after 1 PM. She came back just for a moment at 2:27 PM, then at 3:23 PM she returned and stayed until 6:50 PM. The next adult that appeared did so 36 minutes after sunset to make the first food delivery of the night. Mme. Owl showed-up at 9:50 PM with the fifth delivery of the night, a small bird, which she fed to owlets for ten minutes before exiting with what little remained. After that, there were three deliveries of small prey before midnight.

(I've been behind on my email for about week, so if you were expecting a reply and haven't heard from me, take no offense. Oh, and at some point in the next few nights I hope to bring down the box, replace the bedding material, which starlings thinned-out quite a bit just before nesting began, clean the camera compartment glass, and take some photos of the owlets. Recently, the box has begun acquiring quite a fly population during portions of the afternoon, so there's plainly room for an improvement on the hygiene front that even the owls may appreciate. Don't panic if you happen to witness this process.)

April 20 - At least eighteen food deliveries between midnight and sunrise, all geckos or smaller. Mme. Owl didn't return to the nest box for the day until 17 minutes after sunrise. She began spending time in the entryway at 1 PM, and exited the box at 7:31 PM, 31 minutes before sunset. She probably wanted a bit of peace and quiet, and maybe access to a cool breeze, and with the owlets sitting at the bottom of a box they aren't able to climb out of yet, there was little opportunity for trouble. She may also have roosted nearby to keep an eye on the box, though there's no way to know. The first food delivery of the night was at 8:36 PM, 34 minutes after sunset. Including that one, there were at least 24 deliveries between sunset and midnight. The prey continues to be geckos and insects.

April 19 - The 28th (at least) food delivery since midnight was a bird that Mr. Owl brought by at 6:01 AM. [QuickTime; 1.9MB] With his mate out hunting, this was not a success, because the owlets he was offering it to were not much larger than it was. After sensing the futility of his situation, he exited the box. Mme. Owl appeared four minutes later with the bird, and spent the next fifteen minutes feeding it to the owlets. After a bit of owlet maintenance, she exited the box, not to return until eleven minutes after sunrise.

The day was quiet, but not conducive to meaningful sleep due to owlet activity. Starting in the four o'clock hour, Mme. Owl spent much of the afternoon sitting in the entryway. She left the nest box eleven minutes before sunset.

The fourth post-sunset food delivery was something large brought by Mme. Owl at 8:38 PM. She spent the next ten minutes or so feeding the owlets, then returned to the hunt. There were a minimum of fourteen more food deliveries before midnight, all geckos or smaller.

April 18 - Up to 3 AM, there had been 11 food deliveries, all geckos or smaller. At 3:01 AM, Mme. Owl arrived with a small bird, which she spent the next seven minutes feeding to the owlets. Interestingly, while she did that, a Texas blind snake was quietly climbing down the slats on the front wall of the box, apparently after having climbed to the top of the box in a seam between the front and side walls. (Look for it on the 4th slat down from the hole with its tail hanging down almost to the 5th slat.) It seems safe to assume it was trying to escape. Instead, it's had to settle for living in the bedding material on the floor of the box, where it will eat any insects, or insect larvae, that try to setup housekeeping there, often by consuming the owls' stored prey items. Gehlbach's research shows that nestlings that share nest boxes with such snakes have a 3.6% mortality rate, while those in snake-free nest boxes have a rate of 10%.

Mme. Owl returned at 4:28 AM to resume feeding the bird to the owlets. That continued for nine minutes. After at least three more small prey deliveries by the adults, Mme. Owl returned at 6:18 to finish feeding the bird to the owlets, which took only four or five minutes. She exited soon afterward, not returning until 6:48 AM, ten minutes before sunrise.

The day was as quiet as any day could be when it involves sitting in a small box with four active owlets. Much of time Mme. Owl seemed to be trying to keep out of their way, perhaps in the futile hope of getting some sleep. From the late afternoon, until she exited 8 minutes after sunset, she spent slightly more than an hour sitting in the entryway. Between sunset and midnight the adults made at least 17 food deliveries to the owlets, in all cases the prey were geckos or smaller.

April 17 - There were at least 21 food deliveries between midnight and dawn. Most were quick, hit-and-run events, but Mme. Owl often spent time with the owlets before leaving again. Typically she'd make a careful inspection of the nest box floor, searching for dropped food items, which, when found, she'd feed to one of the youngsters. She might also preen them, and brood them a little, before returning to the hunt. The largest of the food items delivered were geckos, the rest were various insects. However, eleven minutes before dawn, Mme. Owl arrived with a small bird. She spent four minutes feeding pieces of it to the owlets, then stowed it in the far-left corner of the box.

At 11:02 AM, she spent ten minutes feeding the bird to the owlets. Around noon, she spent 16 minutes sitting in the entryway. Around 4 PM, she spent ten minutes feeding the owlets. That seems to have been the last of the bird. Between 6:17 and 6:45 PM, Mme. Owl sat in the entryway while the kids stretched, slept, preened and stumbled around. All of them appear to be able to open their eyes now, though they seldom open them very far. It's hard to guess how much they can see; owls are born with eyes that are cloudy white, rather than transparent. During their first month of growth, the cloudiness fades, and the eyes become almost fully transparent by the time they leave the nest. Right now, they'd still be quite cloudy.

Mme. Owl spend the last thirty minutes of the day sitting in the entryway, and exited eleven minutes after sunset. Before midnight there were at least 17 food deliveries, none larger than geckos, with the runner-up a large dragonfly. Mme. Owl made a number of extended stays with the owlets after her food deliveries.

April 16 - When Mme. Owl arrived at 2:48 AM with a mouse, it was at least the ninth food delivery since midnight. All the other prey items were geckos, moths or various small insects. The owlets are swallowing geckos without much trouble, but they are still much too young to handle large food items like mice, so Mme. Owl continues to tear those into pieces the owlets can swallow. The owlets, like adults, eat everything: meat, bones, fur and all in between. For an owl, all those materials are necessary for proper nutrition and digestion. An owl can't digest bones and fur (though I'd be surprised if some calcium didn't dissolve off of the bones), so those items become compacted into a pellet in the stomach, which is "cast", i.e. coughed-up and spit-out. Naturalists collect owl pellets and tease them apart to learn about owl diets and prey populations. In some places like caves those pellets accumulate and are preserved for tens of thousands of years. When their ages and contents are analyzed, they provide a historical census of prey populations for their area. Personally, I never find pellets. Owls have favorite perches for casting pellets as well as for hunting, and wherever mine go, it must not be in my yard. (The owlets produce pellets, which I find in the nest box, but those look like tiny lumps of soft, white chalk, and I haven't noticed any discreet bones or other parts in them.)

The initial mouse feeding lasted 17 minutes. She resumed at 5:05 AM, and continued for 16 minutes. At noon, the owlets were again being fed mouse. That lasted 15 minutes. The afternoon was warm enough that the owlets spent much of it sleeping out from under Mme. Owl, and she took significant time out to relax in the entryway and watch the world go by from the safety of her nest.

Sunset came at 8 PM, and Mme. Owl left the nest box at the same time. She returned 17 minutes later and began feeding something to the owlets. She exited 11 minutes after that. In her absence, the owlets accidentally posed for a group portrait. She returned a bit after nine and resumed feeding the owlets from what was left of the mystery item she'd delivered earlier. That lasted another ten minutes. There were at least ten food deliveries between sunset and midnight.

April 15 - There were at least 22 food deliveries between midnight and dawn. Mme. Owl was away a lot of that time, and it seems safe to assume that she's joined her mate in hunting for the owlets. The day was quiet, and she spent much of the last 40 minutes of daylight sitting in the entryway, watching the world go by. She exited the nest box ten minutes after sunset. Once again she was gone for significant periods. Between sunset and midnight there were at least 16 food deliveries, mostly moths and random other insects, but with a good number of geckos, and one Texas blind snake. These items are all being fed directly to the owlets who are gradually becoming more adept at swallowing whole prey.

Around 2:40 AM I went out to fill my bird feeder, and, once again, while taking a look at the wildflower population in the tiny meadow overlooked by the nest box tree, I found an owl watching me from that tree. I believe that a lot of the moths the owls are catching are caught over the meadow, and this owl was waiting for the next one to come along. I went back to the house and returned with camera, tripod and light, and found that the owl had moved to a large hackberry tree that also overlooks the meadow. I was fortunate enough to get one good photo. At the time I assumed this was the male, but comparing this image to the male and female headshots from March 14, I'm confident it's the female, which explains why the ear tufts are up; she doesn't know, or trust, me as well as her mate.

(I'd like to suggest the following caption for this latest photo: "...you are feeling sleepy ... very sleepy ... now, bring me mice.")

April 14 - At 1:20 AM, Mr. Owl made the most unusual food delivery of this year: a crayfish. (....there's never a bowl of gumbo around when I need one....) Last year he surprised me by delivering several goldfish. I'm not sure which should earn him more points for originality. Mme. Owl took a 23 minute break an hour before sunrise.

Apart from a starling poking is head into the box in the early morning, the day appears to have been quiet. Mme. Owl spent 20 minutes sitting in the entryway, watching the world go by, starting at 6:27 PM. At 7:20 she returned to the entryway for another 20 minutes. Beginning a minute before sunset she spent a further 12 minutes there. Between then (8:10 PM) and 9:02 PM when Mme. Owl returned, Mr. Owl made at least 11 deliveries of small prey items, mostly moths, but at least one gecko. He offered these directly to the owlets, but judging by the number of moths running loose in the nest box afterward, the owlets fumbled quite a few of those handoffs. Mme. Owl amused herself thereafter by grabbing those moths at her leisure.

Mme. Owl exited the nest box again at 10:16 PM, and returned at 11:02 PM. While she was out, her mate made at least another seven small-prey deliveries to the owlets, with more moths escaping to wander around the box. Strictly speaking, I can't be sure Mme. Owl wasn't responsible for some of those deliveries, but her instincts make her a lot more careful about feeding the owlets, and therefore not very likely to adopt this hit-and-run delivery style, at least not at this early stage.

April 13 - Mr. Owl delivered a bird at 3 AM. It was enthusiastically received, and he exited. For reasons not clear, he returned two minutes later, and hung around for a minute. Perhaps he'd hoped to share the kill, but Mme. Owl, who had begun feeding it to the owlets as soon as he'd delivered it, had other ideas. Perhaps it was something else. In any case, the feeding lasted five minutes. Fifty minutes later, she fed the owlets from the bird again. Bt 4:42 AM, she was once more feeding the owlets.

Mr. Owl delivered another bird at 5:02 AM. It's not entirely clear that Mme. Owl accepted it, but she did begin another feeding from something other than the previous bird.

Mme. Owl took a break of ten minutes an hour before sunrise. Twenty minutes before sunrise, she took another seven minutes. While the owlets were exposed to view, it became apparent that at least one of them has begun to open its eyes.

A mishap prevented any images from being stored during the period from 2 PM to 10:30 PM. However, Andy Balinsky writes: "We were watching your cam last night live, and Mme. perched in the entrance about 5 min (around 8:05-8:10), came back down and brooded maybe 2 min (probably to warm everybody back up), and then took about a 7-minute break from about 8:12 to 8:19 (+ or - 2 min). We didn't observe any visits by Mr. between 8:00 and 8:25, when we stopped watching." Thanks, Andy.

Mme. Owl was absent for six minutes beginning at 10:46 PM. She returned for a minute, then left again for twenty minutes. I have no idea what she was up to. Apart from a small food delivery from Mr. Owl, that was it for the 13th.

April 12 - Mr. Owl delivered a bird at 3:20 AM. His mate accepted it, and placed it in a corner of the nest box for later. She began feeding it to the owlets at 4 AM, and had placed it back in storage ten minutes later. Her mate returned with at 5:10 AM with another bird, which she also accepted. She spent the next five minutes feeding pieces of it to the owlets, then set it aside. At 6:07 AM, he brought another good-sized prey item, probably a bird, which Mme. Owl also accepted. She fed the owlets from it for five minutes, then added it to her stores. Between these major deliveries, he also provided at least three small deliveries, probably moths. These small items she has begun passing whole to the owlets.

Mme. Owl's pre-sunrise break lasted five minutes, and occurred ten minutes before sunrise. The day was quiet, though a starling stuck in its head for a look. The stored birds provided four or five feedings during the day, and all but one had disappeared by sunset.

Mme. Owl's post-sunset absence lasted 18 minutes, and began 11 minutes after sunset. At 9:05 PM, after three small food deliveries from her mate, and feeding more of the remaining bird to the owlets, she took what was left of the bird and exited the box. She returned six minutes later with it, or another bird much like it. Either way, she stored it for later. Just before 9:30 PM, Mr. Owl showed-up with a fresh bird. It looks as though it wasn't accepted, but Mme. Owl resumed feeding the previous bird to the owlets shortly after he left. Ten minutes later, she exited with the last scrap of that bird ... which, odd as it seems, she returned with four minutes later. Before midnight, the male made at least three more small deliveries, probably all moths.

April 11 - Mr. Owl delivered a bird shortly after midnight. That provided three feedings by 2:50 AM when he delivered another bird. Mme. Owl didn't accept this one, presumably because there was still plenty left of the previous one, so he exited with it. Mme. Owl took a six minute break at 3:10 AM. At 4:48 AM, her mate delivered a bird, probably the same one she'd rejected earlier. There wasn't much left of the first bird by this time, and she accepted his latest offering. At 6 AM, he delivered another sizable kill, but it's not clear whether it was accepted.

Two minutes after sunrise, Mme. Owl took a two minute break. The day was unseasonably cold (high 40s), so the kids were content to stay under mom, but they weren't (and seldom are) content to sit still; throughout the morning Mme. Owl looked like she was bobbing up and down on unseen waves. She gets a lot of this, and accepts it with equanimity. That's good, of course, because it's only going to get worse until the owlets are large enough not to need brooding. Otherwise, it was a quiet day.

A minute or two before sunset had technically arrived, Mr. Owl dropped-off a bird, which his mate accepted with enthusiasm. What she wasn't happy about was that he decided to pause for a few minutes in the entryway to rest, or just to watch the world go by. Either way, Mme. Owl was ready for her post-sunset break, but couldn't get out. She tried pushing him from behind, but that didn't work. He left about a minute after she gave-up that tactic, and she exited shortly afterward, carrying the bird with her. She returned 13 minutes later, apparently without the bird. It looked like too much for her to eat in one sitting, so I'd guess she's either maintaining a food cache outside the nest, or she shared it with her mate.

Mr. Owl's next major food delivery was a bird, at 10:47 PM. Mme. Owl accepted it quickly. However, she didn't begin feeding it to the owlets in earnest until an hour later.

April 10 - At 12:15 AM, Mr. Owl delivered the largest kill I've ever seen from him, a dove. The dove was probably one of our smaller local species, like the Inca. Even so, it was large enough that getting it and himself through the entryway at the same time was a struggle. Ufortunately for him, Mme. Owl didn't show a strong desire to keep the kill, so he had to repeat the struggle on his way out. An hour and a quarter later, he tried to deliver it again, but he had some difficulty getting through the entryway with it, and gave up without having entered the nest box at all. Almost two and a half hours since his original delivery attempt, he brought the dove back, yet again. He'd probably eaten a portion of it, and that made it easier to deliver. By this time his mate definitely wanted it, and received it with all due enthusiasm. She spent the next fourteen minutes placing pieces of it in eager owlet mouths, before storing it in a corner. By 3:30 AM, she was feeding the owlets from it again. An hour after that feeding finished, she was back at it again, but now there were four mouths to feed.

At 6:10 AM, after having made several small food delieries, he brought another bird to his mate; not one as large the dove, but larger than most. Once again, she didn't take it from him, so he left with it. Oddly, a minute later, Mme. Owl picked up the remainder of the dove and exited the nest box. She returned eight minutes later with a smaller bird than she'd had when she left. It was probably the remains of the dove after she'd had a belly full of it, but why she felt a need to do her eating outside the nest, I don't know. In any case, she spent the next five minutes feeding the bird to the owlets, before setting it aside for feedings during the day.

Mme. Owl's post-sunset break lasted five minutes and began five minutes before sunset, probably due to the clouds of a thunderstorm making everything appear darker than it should have. Fifteen minutes later, her soggy mate delivered yet another bird to her, and, once again, wound-up undelivering it shortly thereafter. At 9:46 PM, he delivered it, or another bird much like it. This time Mme. Owl was quite enthusiastic.

April 9 - Around 1:30 AM, Mme. Owl managed a nine minute break. At about 2:30 AM, I went out to top-off my bird feeder, and have a look at my little wildflower meadow that sits at the base of the nest box tree. I happened to spot the male owl in the nest box tree, and came back with camera and light. It turns out he was waiting to deliver a gecko, but probably didn't want to do it while I was around, in order to avoid giving away the location of his nest. (Irony is lost on instinct.) That notwithstanding, he plainly didn't consider me the slightest threat, since he didn't so much as show his "ear" tufts. [Photo 2] [Photo 3] He just waited for me to disappear back into the house and turn off the porch light. Then he delivered the lizard.

Mme. Owl's pre-sunrise break occurred 50 minutes before sunrise, and lasted seven minutes. When she returned she brought with her the remains of a small bird. The only other identifiable food deliveries between midnight and dawn were 2 geckos.

The day seems to have been quiet, although restless owlets afforded Mme. Owl little, if any, opportunity to sleep. She fed them pieces of the bird until that disappeared. With temperatures nearing 90° Fahrenheit in the nest box, she didn't have to sit on all the kids all the time. Also due to the temperature, she was able to take a 55 minute break beginning 17 minutes after sunset. There were at least six food deliveries before midnight, but only one could be identified: a gecko.

April 8 - Shortly after one in the morning, Mr. Owl showed-up with a nice, big mouse. Contrary to his expectations, Mme. Owl took little interest, and he left with it after a minute. He made no further food deliveries for the next hour and a half, when he returned with the mouse. This time it was enthusiastically received. (If at first you don't succeed....) Most of the mouse remained, even after three feedings, when the male, at around 4:40 AM, delivered a small bird. Mme. Owl accepted that promptly, and set about feeding it to the owlets. When their bellies were filled, she set it aside in a corner, just as the she had done with the mouse. By sunrise, the owlets had received two more feedings; one mouse, one bird, and there will still leftovers from each. Mme. Owl took no pre-sunrise break.

By the time Mme. Owl climbed into the entryway to watch the world as the sun began to set, the mouse had disappeared, and the bird was looking quite depleted. Oh, and the third egg had transformed itself into a nicely active new owlet, a fine trick by any standard. Not having been out of the nest box for about 19 hours, she exited just minutes after sunset. However, she made her absence as short as possible, returning four minutes later.

Mr. Owl made his first food delivery of the evening 35 minutes after sunset. It was a small bird, which was timely because the last of the previous bird had vanished. Mme. Owl spent five minutes feeding the kids, then placed the bird in a corner for later. Around 9:30 PM, she took a seven minute break, then returned and promptly began feeding the kids. This continued for 12 minutes before she left carrying the remainder of the bird. She returned four minutes later without it. Between then and midnight, the owlets dined on gecko.

April 7 - Egg no. 2 hatched around 1:50 AM, and this owlet also appears healthy and vigorous. The short, roughly 6.5 hour, gap between hatchings was the result of Mme. Owl delaying incubation until she laid the second egg. This means that these first two owlets will be more-or-less at the same stage of development from now on, and will also reduce the developmental gap between the first- and last-born. This will pay off by, among other things, reducing the length of the period during which the owlets leave the nest box; a time during which the attentions of the adults must be divided between the owlets roaming free in the nest box tree, and those still in the box.

Mme. Owl cut down her pre-sunrise break to just three minutes, at 15 minutes before sunrise. A mishap prevented the gathering of data from the hours around sunset. The evening food deliveries I was able to observe, however, suggest the owlets have been dining on hunks of cockroach and gecko.

April 6 - 79 minutes before sunrise, Mme. Owl took a 9 minute break. At 7:44 AM, as a potent thunderstorm swept over the area, she left the nest box in a hurry, but was back a minute later, apparently having decided, once again, that riding out a storm in the nest box may be noisy, but it's preferable to the alternative.

The first egg appears to have begun hatching in earnest at 7:14 PM. We had our first look at junior at 8:08 PM. As you can see in this time lapse movie (QuickTime; 3.3 MB) which covers Mme. Owl's post-sunset constitutional, junior is vigorous and has no trouble pushing around his spheroidal brothers and sisters, even though he can't really hold up his own body yet.

Once Mr. Owl realized what had happened, he stepped-up his food deliveries accordingly, making at least six between 9:50 PM and midnight. Most seemed to be moths, which Mme. Owl fed directly to the owlet. As is always the case with screech owls, the male is responsible for all the hunting, and the female does all the feeding and other owlet care. The female won't join her mate in hunting for the family until the owlets are large enough to control their own body temperatures, and can therefore be left alone safely. Even then, the male will be responsible for the bulk of the prey, because he remains completely dedicated to hunting, and because his hunting skills have been honed by necessity and continuous use.

April 5 - Mr. Owl delivered a small bird around 6 AM. Mme. Owl accepted it and followed him out of the nest box, returning 12 minutes later, so I presume they shared the kill. Her pre-sunrise break lasted only five minutes, beginning 23 minutes before sunrise. Quiet day. Her post-sunset break lasted 12 minutes, beginning 13 minutes after sunset.

Note that there is a small dark feature on the shell of the left, rear egg. This could be a random speck of dirt, or the first sign of an egg hatching. No tell-tale peeping sounds can be heard in the box, however, so assume it's dirt for now. Nonetheless, given the margin of error in the incubation statistics on which the April 7 estimate is based, the first egg could begin hatching any time now.

Mr. Owl showed up with another small bird around 10 PM. Once again, his mate accepted the kill, and followed him out of the nest box with it. She returned five minutes later.

April 4 - Mme. Owl's pre-sunrise break lasted six minutes, and took place an hour before sunrise. The day was very quiet, and she spent much of the last hour of daylight sitting in the entryway watching the world go by. Her post-sunset break lasted seven minutes, and waited until 41 minutes after sunset.

April 3 - The pre-sunrise break lasted 7 minutes and began 52 minutes before sunrise. The day was very quiet. Six minutes before sunset, Mme. Owl spent 3 minutes sitting in the entryway, and at 13 after sunset, she spent another 6 minutes there, before leaving for 7 minutes. Fourteen minutes later she was gone again, for another 7 minutes. Around 7:45 PM, something that was probably a Texas blind snake was delivered to the next box, and Mme. Owl left to eat it. Starting at 11:19 PM, she was absent for five minutes; not sure why.

April 2 - 72 minutes before sunrise, Mme. Owl left for 12 minutes. The day was quiet. Her post-sensut break occurred 16 minutes after sunset, and lasted five minutes. Fourty one minutes later, she took a further break of eight minutes.

April 1 - Mme. Owl's pre-sunrise break began 34 minutes before sunrise and lasted 8 minutes. Very quiet day. The post-sunset break began 23 minutes after sunset and lasted only 7 minutes. She compensated for that by taking a further 18 minute break ten minutes after returning from the first one, and a very short break a bit after that. This day's food deliveries were all small prey, such as geckos.

March 31 - Twenty two minutes before sunrise Mme. Owl took a two minute break. During the day, at least one starling stuck its head into the nest box, but otherwise things were quiet. Eighteen minutes after sunset, Mme. Owl took a 9 minute constitutional before returning to brooding duty. About twenty minutes later, she took a 7 minute break. At 8:19 PM the male delivered a large prey item, and they both left the nest box, presumably to share it. She returned 8 minutes later. And that was that for the 31st of March.

March 30 - At 3:24 AM the male delivered another bird, or possibly, the slightly eaten remainder of the bird he attempted to deliver just before midnight. She was a bit more receptive this time; she didn't accept the delivery, but shortly after the male exited with it, she exited, presumably to share the kill. She returned three minutes later.

Mme. Owl's pre-sunset break occurred 22 minutes before sunrise, and lasted just one minute. Very quiet day. Her post-sunset constitutional lasted 10 minutes and waited until 24 minutes after sunset. A bit past 10 at night, she took delivery of another good sized prey item, probably a small bird. She swallowed it whole.

March 29 - Mme. owl took a 12 minute break at 3:43 AM. Thirty six minutes before sunrise, she left for 11 minutes. During the day starlings took a small interest in the box, but don't seem to have caused any real concern. Her post sunset-constitutional was a brief eight minutes beginning 25 minutes after sunset. She also took a 13 minute break at 11:08 PM. One minute before midnight Mr. Owl made his third (at least) post-sunset food delivery: the largest bird he's brought so far. He marched around his mate on the floor of the nest box, offering her the bird and singing his food offering song, but she took no more than a polite interest in the kill, and eventually he gave up and exited with it. Sometimes even the best work gets you nowhere.

March 28 - Mme. Owl took no significant break before sunrise, opting instead for two short breaks in the preceding 35 minutes. Her post-sunset break was oddly structured, as well: 15 minutes after sunset, she left for four minutes, then, two minutes after returning, she was gone for 47 minutes. During the latter absence, she found time for a bath. Due to relatively high humidity, she spent the remainder of the 28th looking wet and worse for the wear, but, presumably, feeling fine.

Once again, I encountered the male hunting at my bird feeders, but this time I frightened him off before I realized he was there. Sorry, Mister.

March 27 - Mr. Owl delivered another small bird to his mate shortly after midnight. She swallowed it whole, in standard owl fashion. Her pre-sunrise break lasted just six minutes, at 31 minutes before sunrise. She had also taken an 11 minute break at 90 minutes before sunrise. The day was quiet. Her post-sunset constitutional began at 19 minutes after sunset, and lasted only eight minutes. At 8:13 PM the male delivered yet another small bird. Mme. Owl exited the nest box shortly afterward carrying the bird and didn't return for 19 minutes. They probably shared the meal. At 11:43 PM, the male delivered the third small bird of the day. Once again, Mme. Owl soon left the box with the prey, so it seems likely that they shared this kill, too. Before long, this family will have six mouths to feed, and this experienced male is clearly the right owl for that job.

March 26 - The pre-sunrise break lasted 13 minutes, and took place 48 minutes before sunrise. There was no post-sunset break, as such. Instead, Mme. Owl took two short breaks at 12 and 18 minutes after sunset.

Her mate has begun hunting larger prey items; he made his first delivery of a bird to the nest box this year. While quite a small bird, it will have made a good meal for a screech owl. She left the nest box with the bird just after it was delivered, and returned four minutes later without it, so it's possible that they shared the kill.

March 25 - Mme. Owl's pre-sunrise break was 80 minutes before sunrise, and lasted 12 minutes. The post-sunset break was 13 minutes after sunset, and lasted 13 minutes. The day was quiet.

Returning home shortly before midnight from a bicycle ride in the Hill Country, I was fortunate to notice the male owl sitting in a tree not far from the back porch. He was watching the area around my bird feeders, accustomed, I expect, to finding various small critters coming-out to feed on discarded seeds. He watched me intently, and had undoubtedly been doing so since I appeared in the driveway, but was so calm that I had the opportunity to grab camera and tripod and photograph him. The photography took a while, and he wasn't particularly pleased with the hand-held light I was shining at him to get the photos, but he was still on the same perch watching the feeder area as I picked-up everything and returned to the house. Plainly, a good hunting ground isn't to be abandoned lightly, and I'm not considered a serious threat. (Just a pest, I suppose.)

One of the pleasures of living around owls is that they turn bird-watching on its head; they watch us more carefully than we could ever watch them.

March 24 - Mme. Owl's pre-sunrise break took place 54 minutes before sunrise, and lasted 13 minutes. Her post-sunset absence took place 13 minutes after sunset, and lasted 16 minutes. In between was a quiet day, apart from some thunder, lightning and rain that passed through in the late afternoon. No panic on our owl's part, this time.

March 23 - Mme. Owl's pre-sunrise break lasted 11 minutes, and happened 34 minutes before sunrise. Her post-sunset constitutional occurred 11 minutes after sunset and lasted 17 minutes. As usual, her mate made sure there was no shortage of food deliveries, and he may have even brought more food than Mme. Owl wanted; one frame seems to show him leaving with food. Screech owls will store extra food as insurance, but the food is arriving so steadily, and her demands are sufficiently modest, that she may not feel a need for a cache.

March 22 - The pre-sunrise break lasted just five minutes, and occurred 26 minutes before sunrise. The very short break may have been adequate because Mme. Owl had taken off for 10 minutes shortly before 4 AM. During the day, the house sparrows were back, and starlings showed-up bearing beak-fulls of nest building material. Neither of these introduced species were willing to enter the box, so the day remained calm. I don't think it's a coincidence that only non-native bird species are willing to risk disturbing a nesting owl. Perhaps they're genetically more aggressive than our native species because competition for nesting cavities was greater where they evolved. Alternately, they may lack the local species' instinctive knowledge of the threat an owl represents to songbirds like themselves. Or it could be something else entirely. (By the way, Starlings are native to Eurasia. Every one of them in North America is descended from 100 that were released in New York's Central Park in 1890. House sparrows are a similar story: they are all descended from a handful of birds released in the same park in 1850. They originated in Eurasia and North Africa.)

Mme. Owl's post-sunset constitutional lasted ten minutes and waited until 25 minutes after sunset.

(Last week did quite a number on me, and I'm still behind in my email. Bear with me.)

March 21 - Mme. Owl's pre-sunrise break, if it can be called that, occurred a full hour before sunrise and lasted ten minutes. Her post-sunset constitutional, which occurred 25 minutes after sunset, was also a mere ten minutes. There were no other significant absences. At least one starling had a look into the nest box during the morning, but left it at that, which made for another quiet day.

March 20 - Pre-sunrise break of 9 minutes at 24 minutes before sunrise. Quiet day, with no sign of starling visits. House sparrows were another matter, however. Since they'd make nice owl meals, this has to be an unwise avenue of investigation on their part. I expect them to reach a similar conclusion before long. Mme. Owl's post-sunset constitutional waited until 23 minutes after sunset, and lasted 13 minutes. She had another little break at 9:19 PM, this time of 14 minutes. All other breaks, and there weren't many, were just a few minutes long. The weather is warm, so she could probably get away with more and longer breaks, if she wanted to do so.

March 19 - Mme. Owl took few breaks from incubation today. Even her longest, the standard post-sunset constitutional, was under ten minutes. All the prey items I've observed have been geckos, which seem to have always been this male's preferred prey, provided the weather is warm enough for the lizards to be out and about. He probably won't make a serious effort to secure large prey items until the food demands of his family begin growing as the eggs hatch.

The starlings are becoming accustomed to putting their heads in the nest box and suffering no ill effects, so they're slowly growing more bold. I expect they'll progress into full-scale owl harassment mode before any of the eggs can hatch. Somewhere in between I'll try mounting a decoy nest box in the owls' tree, in hopes of diverting the starlings' attention to it.

March 18 - Another quiet day. A starling did stick its beak into the entryway a few times during the day, but went no further. Mme. Owl's only significant absences were 18 minutes at 70 minutes before sunrise, and 13 minutes at 20 minutes after sunset. No new egg.

March 17 - Quiet day, again. (Hopefully we'll have a lot more of these.) Mme. Owl's only significant absence all day was 18 minutes shortly after sunset.

Live images from the nest box have been available off-and-on since Sunday, and hardly at all today. The problem is not with the nest box cam', its capture hardware, or its server, but appears to be with Time Warner/Road Runner's DHCP system. Needless to say, I'm not happy about this.

March 16 - Quiet day. Mme. Owl's only significant absence came shortly after sunset and lasted 20 minutes; not much of a break from a solid day of tending eggs. The male, of course, kept up his end of the bargain by delivering a steady supply of food (mostly geckos it seems) with the skill we've come to expect from him. With a bit of luck, Mme. Owl might provide another egg late tomorrow, or early the following day.

March 15 - Egg number 4 appeared this evening. It first became visible at 6:45 PM, but it's hard to know when it was laid; somewhere around 8 AM is my best guess. (See the clutch in 3D.) Four eggs are a typical clutch for screech owls (the first typical clutch this nest box has seen), but with luck we could end-up with five, or even six eggs. It'll be two or three days before the next egg could appear.

Otherwise, the most significant event of the day came this evening when a heavy thunderstorm passed through the area. At the height of the storm the combination of thunder, lightning, wind, and the rain beating down on the nest box, frightened Mme. Owl so much she shot out of the box like a bullet from a gun. And an instant later she shot into the box just as quickly, having immediately realized that no matter how bad it seemed inside the nest box, it was nothing compared to what was happening outside. She rode out the remainder of the storm calmly.

March 14 - In the hours between midnight and dawn, Mme. Owl took a number of very short breaks from incubation, usually just after a food delivery. Forty minutes before sunrise, she took her pre-dawn constitutional of 25 minutes. Starlings poking their heads into the nest box kept her wary throughout the morning, but there was less activity during the afternoon, which let her relax a bit.

She didn't leave the nest box, or even look out of the entryway, until 15 minutes after sunset, almost certainly because I was standing at the edge of the yard with a camera, tripod and telephoto lens in hopes of getting a picture of her. Though I kept quiet and barely moved for half an hour, my presence must have been readily audible to her. Only after I'd rigged-up a hundred feet of remote control cable and retired to the house, did she show herself. Later, following a food delivery, the male also inadvertantly sat for the camera. (The faint purple glow inside the entryway next to him is from the infrared sensor that detects all comings and goings from the box. Though the sensor's light is invisible to human eyes, digital cameras can see into the near infrared. It's not clear whether owls can also do so, though it is generally believed that they can't.)

The remainder of the 14th was quiet, apart from a steady trickle of food deliveries, mostly geckos.

March 13 - Mme. Owl returned to the nest box at 1:20 AM. Egg no. 3 was first seen at 6:16 AM, during an 8 minute absence. Best guess as to when it was laid is 4:20 AM. She has now acheived minimum screech owl clutch size, which is a great sign after years of troubled clutches in this box, but the average size is much closer to four eggs, and the total can be as high as six.

The day appears to have been quiet. During the hour bracketing sunset, she went back and forth between the entryway and the eggs. She left the box at 6:52 PM, and didn't return until 55 minutes later. Once she returned, she stayed with the eggs, apart from a handful of breaks of up to ten minutes in length, when she may have been taking advantage of passing rains to bathe.

If there's to be a fourth egg, it'll probably be laid late on the 15th.

March 12 - (No new egg today.) Mme. Owl returned to the nest box at 2:30 AM, and stayed for 15 minutes, At that point her mate brought her a gecko and she exited moments later, returning at 6:25 AM, 17 minutes before sunrise. The day was quiet. Much of the hour before sunset Mme. Owl spent sitting in the entryway. Ten minues after sunset she left the nest box. She was absent for about 2 hours, 40 minutes. Around 10:40 PM she left for a further 40 minutes. Upon returning she remained on the eggs until shortly after midnight, when she left again.

March 11 - The female owl returned to nest box shortly before 6 AM and resumed brooding briefly. Ten minutes later, she left again, returning after 7 minutes. Throughout the day the standoff with the starlings continued. Following sunset, she spent 30 minutes sitting in the entryway watching the world go by, before leaving for the evening. As of midnight, she had not returned. Egg no. 3 is likely to appear on the 12th or 13th. With each egg, the interval increases a bit.

March 10 - Not yet ready to begin full-time incubation, the female owl spent little time in the nest box until about 4 in the morning. After sunrise she maintained a standoff with the starlings throughout the morning. The afternoon appears to have been calm. She left the nest box 20 minutes after sunset, and returned 40 minutes later, at 7:39 PM. Right around 8:30 PM she laid egg number 2. She brooded both eggs until she left at 11:40 PM. The next egg will probably arrive on the 12th.

March 9 - The female owl--almost certainly a different female from last year (the male seems to be the same, however)--left the nest box shortly before midnight on the 8th. She returned around 5:30 AM, a good 80 minutes before sunrise, to resume looking after egg no. 1. Throughout the day she alternated between brooding the egg, and sitting beside it. She doesn't want her eggs developing too rapidly until she's laid the second or third egg, otherwise the hatching and branching periods will be awkwardly dawn-out. Starlings visited the box throughout the day, unfortunately. The female left the nest box 20 minutes after sunset, and had not returned by midnight.

(This year's daily summaries will be dramatically less detailed than last year's. The amount of time and effort involved in keeping a log of that detail is unsustainable, barring technological advances, or suddenly becoming independently wealthy.)