The owlets are now regularly leaving the nest. Most of their downy feathers are gone. Throughout the day the owls can be seen flying back and forth in the attic, as well as, outside over the fields. One has been observed bringing back a mouse, presumably from its new hunting skills. The parents are still bringing food back to the nest nightly.
Owlets are getting close to fledging. The baby feathers are falling off to expose their newly formed flight feathers. Much of their days are spent sleeping and wing flapping.
The young owls are growing and thriving. They spend their days on their own entertaining themselves. Like like to stand at attention and show what big owls they are!
Momma owl appears to be schooling the kids at home like the rest of us. She seems to be good at keeping the students calm and attentive.
After an eventful 48 hours on Owl Land, the nest is down to three thriving owlets. Mother Nature took care of the weaker two owlets which for this owl cam watcher was very difficult to witness. The footage of the events are not posted here. However, this video shows how hard it could be for a small owlet to survive. When food comes, the hungry kids get quick animated.
Momma owl is now hunting for the little ones. She is not as skilled as the male evidenced by her bringing back a live mouse. For hours, the mouse looked for an escape. At the end of this clip, you see it finally making its escape in the right upper corner of the frame. Unfortunately, it must have fallen to the floor. I will go check later today to see if the poor little thing made it.
The older owlets are learning to eat on their own.
The momma appears to be pausing to allow the older owlet to pull from the mouse on its own and then puts her wing around it to help it eat. So sweet.
Feed me momma, please!
A few seconds into this clip, momma steps out of the way to reveal the oldest owlet. He/she is getting tall.
Not sure, but I think we have four. What do you think? Their sounds can be heard from the lower floor of the barn. A magical sound, indeed.
The momma owls has been feeding her littles ones around the clock. The male is bringing her a steady supply of food for his family.
This little one is less than a day old. He/she is in the back left corner with the other six eggs. Once they get bigger we can expect to see them move about so we can get a better look at them.
The first egg has hatched! Momma owl kicked out the shell and the new owlet is nestled in with the other eggs, soon to be brothers and sisters. Looking forward to them becoming mobile so we get camera close-ups!
Today, she laid her sixth egg. This may be the full clutch. But as this video shows, they are still actively mating. Does that mean there are more eggs coming? This video shows the nightly routine of the male brings her dinner, they mate while she holds dinner, she eats the mouse, all while still sitting on six eggs.
Barn owls appear to be discussing something. Perhaps how they will raise their babies when they hatch?
This is impressive. They both come in for a landing and get right to it. I wonder if they discussed this before they flew into the barn?
In the span of one minute, we see:
1) Her sitting on her egg
2) He arriving with a mouse
3) While she stays on the egg, she takes the mouse and holds it
4) He mounts her, they mate. She is still holding the mouse and staying on the egg
5) He jumps off her back and she eats the mouse.
6) She is still on her egg.
The owls seem to like the nook created by the recent addition to the nest. We added flooring behind the platform base between the wall, wall stud, and platform. We added this to help prevent owlets from falling out of the nest. This seems to interest the owls a lot which means we may see eggs laid out of the current camera shot. I may need to climb to add another camera. I am on it. I do not want to miss seeing these little alien-looking creatures hatch.
If the camera had better sound capability, I think we would hear the mouse rip apart...yikes!