Owlets at 6 and 4 Days

by Trina

At 6 days of age for four of the owlets, and only 4 days for the youngest, they're already being given whole food. DH is still feeding the owlets much of the time, but now she is staying in the nest less. During the night, she is in and out constantly, quickly, dropping off small critters, or pieces of critters, for the owlets to eat by themselves. Boyle is bringing food to her in the trees near the nest box, and based on last year's observations, we expect he'll be delivering straight to the owlets soon, if he isn't already. (We can't always tell the difference between the two adults.)

Owlet #5 is still alive, and looking pretty strong. He's significantly smaller than his siblings, and still a very bright white, while the older owlets are starting to get greyer. One of the older owlets has ever so slightly started to open an eye, and all of the babies are starting to stretch their wings:

Here, a live worm is delivered, eventually sensed/discovered, and devoured:

Here, once the parent leaves, one of the owlets can be seen trying to eat whatever critter was just delivered:

Here, we see an eye ease open a touch, #5 looking strong, and a very cute yawn:

Boyle Delivers

Boyle delivers three times in two minutes:

and a daylight peek:

Identifying the Victims

                                                                             ^ sphinx moth

by Trina

It's been nearly impossible so far to identify what our owls are eating. We know from last year's observations that they eat a lot of cockroaches, sphinx moths and sparrows. I thought the camera would allow good looks at everything Boyle brings in, but alas, it does not. Also, infrared lighting doesn't show color, so even when we can see that Boyle is delivering, say, a dead bird, there aren't any color clues to help identify which species it might be. But as of today, we have a couple of videos that afford decent enough looks at two dead birds that we can at least guess at their identities. This (daytime/color) video shows a bird in the upper right corner with either a yellow throat or head, and some bright white markings on its wing. My guesses are goldfinch or warbler:

...and an unidentifiable grey bird in the lower right corner which I'm guessing is the bird delivered earlier in the morning, which may be a sparrow:

If you know birds better than we do and can identify these, we'd love to hear who you think our owls are eating!

Five Fuzzy Lumplets

by Trina

As of 6:30pm today, all five eggs have hatched! At this point, 4 of the owlets are 2 days old, and the fifth is merely a few hours old. Last year there was one owlet that fledged a day later than its siblings, and was clearly fuzzier, smaller and younger. I'm guessing we're set up for that scenario again, if #5 survives.

Here, DH sits in the hole for a bit, leaves at 2:17, and then you have a minute to enjoy five squirming fuzzy lumplets:

Here, Boyle makes a delivery, DH eats and talks to her babies:

Here, DH sits in the hole for a bit and calls to Boyle. He brings her a morsel which she eats and then she talks to the owlets:

This is a particularly beautiful daylight preening session from the 21st: