April 23 – Owlets 3
and 4 left the nest box. Owlet 3 headed over to the crepe myrtle that stands
next to the nest box tree. Owlet 4 was still in the nest box tree, considering its
options, when I had discontinue observing. In both cases the adult owls stayed
nearby and watched the owlets carefully, singing to them.
As always, I wish I could keep tabs on the owlets indefinitely, but, instead,
I have to let them go the night they leave the nest box, and merely hope I'll
catch sight of them in the future.
Enjoy your new lives kids, and may they be good, long ones.
April 21 – Owlets 1
and 2 left the nest box shortly after sunset. Owlet 1 climbed high into the nest
box tree and then made a flight to one of the large hackberry trees at the back of
the yard, where the owlets always end-up sooner or later. Owlet 2 climbed to a less
promising place in the nest box tree, and was considering trying to make the flight
to one of the hackberrys, when one of its parents perched in a crepe myrtle
tree adjacent to the nest box tree, and began calling to the owlet, who then
changed direction and climbed into the upper branches of the crepe myrtle. So,
both owlets made it to places of safety.
April 16 – Stacy D. has
done a wonderful job of narrowing-down the dates and times of egg laying and hatching,
and the table above has been updated accordingly.
Stacy, I can’t thank you enough for all of
the work you put in – you”ve just saved me a heck of a lot of time, since I no longer
have to start from scratch when I get around
to going through the master image collections to assemble the final figures. Instead,
I merely have to refine your figures. Thanks so much.
This Weird Year – The owls started earlier than usual this year. That was
inconvenient in terms of preparations. Then there’s the matter of this page being
AWOL for most of the nesting period. That was a result of a serious employment issue,
which had a lot of consequences. Fortunately, that was resolved entirely for the better
quite recently. So, I can at least offer you daily slideshows. Daily commentary takes
a lot more work, as does running the live video feed, and I must admit that I’m not
ready to take on those tasks just yet.
Also, my post office box for postcards has expired, probably due to some credit
card fraud causing my bank to issue me a new card, and thereby preventing the
auto-renewal from taking place. So, for now, don't bother with the postcards.
So, it’s been a rough time for me, but the good news is that the owls appear to be
doing great. Take a look at the daily slideshows and see for yourself. And if you
want to help me narrow down egg laying and hatching times, your help will be
welcome.
