Andy & Julia's Owl Blog

Colonialism

Andrew Balinsky — 2006-04-12T11:25:00-0500

Well, the season is officially over. We checked the box this morning and found a huge Acrobat Ant colony in the camera compartment. There were eggs and hundreds of ants in there. There were very few in the actual owl nest compartment, so I doubt it was the ants that kept the owls away. This is especially true since the ants weren't around on March 7th, which was the last day any owls entered the box.
Better luck next season. If this ant infestation had happened during nesting, it would have been a big problem. Perhaps well have to use Tanglefoot (pine tar) next year to keep ants away from the box. Tanglefoot might present a problem for any owlets that fly out and try to climb back up the tree, though, so we'll have to think carefully about that one.

April 1: Ants

Andrew Balinsky — 2006-04-01T 9:32:00-0500

Well, we have had no activity in the box since March 7th, and are just about out of hope. We don't really know what went wrong. Perhaps they didn't like the pine shavings. Perhaps the stray cats in the neighborhood scared or ate one of them. We may replace the nesting material this weekend. Either way, we'll probably take the webcam off-line so the computer doesn't have to run all day. She will either show up and we'll turn it on again, or she won't. In the meantime, we'll just have to watch Chris Johnson's owl and wish him luck.

As you can see, Acrobat Ants have taken over the inactive box. They came last year as well while the owls were nesting. They do no direct harm, but do compete somewhat with the owlets for cached food.

March 15: Some Thoughts

Andrew Balinsky — 2006-03-15T16:28:00-0500

As our Austin owlcam friend Chris Johnson has no activity yet at his cam, we still have hope that perhaps this year is just late in getting underway. Last year the first occupancy was not until March 17th. And as last year began with an egg and then a week of sporadic occupancy, the first viable egg wasn't laid until March 24th.

This year's drought could be having a negative effect on the insect and hence the reptile population, which could mean Mrs. Owl doesn't yet feel she has enough food to start a brood.

March 10-12: Nothing New

Andrew Balinsky — 2006-03-12T22:53:00-0500

No activity for these 2 days. We've been out on our kayak the last couple of evenings, so we haven't observed evening activities outside the box. But the video logs show no activity inside.

March 9-10: Still Waiting

Andrew Balinsky — 2006-03-10T 8:53:00-0500

No activity yesterday or last night.

March 8-9: Activity and Storm

Andrew Balinsky — 2006-03-09T 8:39:00-0500

In the evening, we watched the box inside and outside in hopes that Mrs. Owl would return, even if briefly. At one point in the darkness, I saw a light-colored shaped drop from the bushes to the ground. This may have been an owl hunting. But nobody entered the box.

Overnight, there was a big loud thunderstorm. I checked the box to see whether Mrs. Owl would take refuge in the box, but alas, no such luck.

March 6-8: Flash Visit!

Andrew Balinsky — 2006-03-07T20:44:00-0500

After 3 days of absence, an owl returned for a 30-second visit at 7:05pm on March 7th. We presume it is Mrs. Owl, because during the 30 seconds, the owl spent some time rearranging the nesting material to create a nest-shaped bowl in the wood shavings. Then she promptly left for the evening.

We had begun to wonder whether one of the neighborhood cats had gotten her. Owls are often cat victims, which is one of the reasons that many bird organizations recommend that owners keep their cats indoors. It turns out to be healthier for the cats, too. Cars, wild animals, cruel humans, and disease can all harm cats outdoors. Read more at http://www.abcbirds.org/cats

She didn't return to the box after that, and is not in there as of 8am. So she will spend another day outside the box. When will she nest?

March 5-6: Nobody Home

Andrew Balinsky — 2006-03-06T22:59:00-0500

Mrs. Owl has not put in an appearance in 2 days. Guess she still has to paint the town red (or is it gray?) a while longer before she settles down. We're crossing our fingers she'll come back.

March 4-5: Absence

Andrew Balinsky — 2006-03-05T20:19:00-0500

Mrs. Owl was pretty inactive during the day. She went up into the entrance briefly at 1:48pm(1 min), 2:03pm (14 min), 2:44 (13 min), and 3:10 (25 min). At 3:40, she left the box, but returned 3 minutes later. She jumped back into the entryway 1 minute after that, and was up there until she left for the night at 6:29pm.

However, she didn't return in the morning, and was absent from the box all day. We took the opportunity to do some maintenance. We installed flashing on the tree (to prevent snakes or racoons climbing the tree), and to added more lighting to the box. We also focused the camera better. We hope for her return sometime this night. Perhaps she is not quite ready to begin egg-laying.

March 3-4: Welcome Home

Andrew Balinsky — 2006-03-03T21:46:00-0500

We turned on the camera this morning and found a gray female owl in the box! While we haven't checked it during daylight hours for a while, we think she probably arrived during the night. A couple of days ago, there was no apparent change in the shape of the wood shavings, and we haven't seen her in the evenings in the entrance hole. She was inside all day, sitting up in the entrance at one point in the afternoon.

This evening, she spent 40 minutes in the doorway, and then flew out at 6:44pm. This year, we have a microphone in the box, so we can hear (but not webcast, unfortunately) what is going on. Around 6:50, we heard a faint yelping sound, which was shortly followed by Mr. Owl's entrance into the box. He made the yelping sound from within the box, and was soon joined by Mrs. Owl. He left very soon, and she spent 2 minutes rearranging the wood shavings and scratching on the bottom of the box. She left for the evening at 6:55.

She returned at 6:32 this morning, shuffled on the box floor for 1 minute, and was in the entryway for nearly an hour (58 minutes). She dropped down after spending a couple of minutes observing us taking the dog out for his morning business.

For several reasons, we believe this is the same female as last year:

The feather pattern on her head looks pretty similar to last year (It wouldn't look exactly the same, because she has molted her feathers since last year.)

Unlike each of the two previous years, in which we know the females were nesting for the first time in that box, this owl is relatively undisturbed by our presence. She paid almost no attention to us as we moved about and sat on the back porch last night. In previous years, the female looked at us immediately when we went out, and spend a good amount of time checking us out. But each one became familiar with our presence and paid less attention after a few weeks. As this one is already habituated to us, she is likely one that has nested there before.

Note: for new viewers of this owlog, entries generally cover a day and the following night, as the owls are active through the night. So midnight is an artificial barrier, and would interrupt the telling of each night's story.

May 24-25: Three in the Trees

Andrew Balinsky — 2005-05-29T22:50:00-0500

During the day, Little Baby did the usual flapping and exercising. He became very active during the 7pm hour, with preening of tail feathers, and attempted flights across the box and to the ceiling. He had a last party in the box, tossing up the nesting material. Like a rock star, he had decided to trash the place before he left.
He was up and he was down and he was up and was scared back down by a housefly! He watched us watching him for the longest time. He even took a little catnap while resting his head in the entrance hole. Fireflies twinkled through the diminishing daylight.
Mr. Owl left his post from the bushes behind the nest box tree at about 8:30pm.
Before receiving a first bite of food for the evening, at 8:40pm Little Baby eased himself ever so gently out of the hole. For a moment we thought he would just step down onto the branches we had installed for the owlets to exit on. But no. He flapped his wings to execute a perfect left turn, and landed in the same bushes that Mr. Owl has been in every day for the past 2+ months. We watched as he struggled to get a better footing. Then he moved into the center of the bush hidden by the leaves. All we could see were leaves moving.
THEN a parent owl appeared on one of the power lines above the rustling leaves. We were hoping to see it go to help Little Baby to the main tree.
Movement on the tree BEHIND the power lines caught our attention. It was BOTH of the of the first 2 fledglings!! They were hopping and playing with each other on a big limb at the back of our neighbor's property. We got the spotting scope on them and by then it was only one. We watched as an adult owl fed the one. Then from out of nowhere, the other one seemed to FLY to join his sibling!!!!
We figured that the previous night, the second fledgling must have walked back to to nest tree, and climbed it all the way to the canopy. It also must have flown across the gap to the tree in which we saw it with its sibling.
So all 3 owlets have made it out of the box, and into the trees. It has been a very successful nesting season.

For the next 3 days, we tried to find the owlets and their parents in the trees behind our and the neighbors' houses. We had little success, despite combing the branches with binoculars for several hours. The only sighting was a warning swoop by one of the parents on the evening of the 25th. Twice, it swooped about 5 ft above Andy's head, clapping its bill once each time. It moved on, and hunted from a branch before being lost into the woods. Andy searched the trees around the area of the warning, hoping that the owlets were near, but never found anything.

We still have to comb through the aromatic contents of the nest box, and will post the results of that. We will also post any future owl sightings or behavior observations.

We have photos of the eldest owlet in the tree, and of one of the other 2 in the doorway. See
Thanks for taking this wonderful journey with us. Tune in next March, when hopefully they will again choose our nestbox in which to raise another family.

May 23-24: Second Fledge/Last Supper

Andrew Balinsky — 2005-05-29T22:24:00-0500

The daytime was much the same as recent days. Andy was out of town, and Julia was unable to locate the fledged owlet in the tree. One of the owlets in the box was very active during the afternoon, with lots of flapping, jumping, and wing stretching. Meanwhile, its sibling sat on the rail, or even slept on the floor.
At 8:07pm, the active one jumped up to the entrance. Less than a minute later, the rail-sitter (Little Baby) became very active, flapping and jumping. He may have been taking advantage of having the floor of the box to himself. At one point, Little Baby jumped up near the hole, and forced his sibling to move up above the hole (perhaps so he didn't get pushed out of the hole before he was ready.) However, he soon regained his position in the hole.
The entry-way owlet began vocalizing with a raspy twittering sound. It got 2 or 3 feedings during its sit in the hole. At 8:37, it eased its feet forward, and jumped out of the hole. It was headed for the same far off branch as the first fledgling had two nights ago. It only hung on for a couple of seconds and then dropped to the salvia bush below.
A parent was nearby throughout the ordeal. There was lots of commotion in the bushes and calls for help from the owlet on the ground. Julia donned the headlamp and long sleeves and gloves in an attempt to help. When she got there, the cries had stopped and there wasn't any reflection from the owlet's eyes in the flashlight beam. At the time, we had to just hope that this strong, healthy baby made it to the nearest tree (a live oak in the lower garden) with its parent's help.
This was very bad timing for Andy to be in California.
Meanwhile Little Baby flew up to the entryway the same second that his brother fledged. Julia thought he was going to fledge, too, especially as Chris Johnson's owls fledged in pairs. But perhaps the sight of his brother floundering in the branch, then calling from the bush scared him off that plan.
He appeared up and down in the entryway for the next 15 minutes, and then waited patiently for his first meal, at 10:26pm. This was a mouse, which was delivered at the entry way, and knocked him backwards on his tail.
He worked on the mouse, for at least an hour, and then continued working on and off for another 2h15min. At 2:02, he was delivered a blind snake. At 2:45, he chewed on the remains of the mouse again. Not much was left beyond the hindquarters and tail. He finished this last supper close to 4am.
These were the only two food deliveries he got all night. But the mouse was a feast.
Little Baby spent almost no time in the entryway during the night. After about 9pm, he went up only once, for 3 minutes. He was busy eating most of the night, and as the sole occupant of the box, there is no longer be a competitive advantage to being in the hole.

May 22-23: Waiting

Andrew Balinsky — 2005-05-29T19:32:00-0500

Daytime on the 22nd was much the same as usual, only with 2 owlets: flapping practice inside the box, and an occasional nest-material-scattering frenzy. Meanwhile, we found the fledgling way up in the canopy of the nestbox tree. It was in a cluster of leaves, with a parent at the base of the branch about 5 ft in and down from the owlet. Nothing would be able to approach the owlet from below without getting past the parent. We didn't find Mr. Owl in the bush behind the nest tree, so it could have been either parent up there. Later in the day, the owlet was still up there, but there was no parent visible up there. Mr. Owl was back in the bush behind the nestbox tree.
During the night, the owlets were quite cooperative with each other. They mostly alternated in the entranceway. They didn't stay up for great lengths of time (10-20 min), and when one came down, the other went up. During the middle part of the night (10pm-5am) the entranceway was mostly empty. There were very few feedings during this time (about 5), with the parent coming into the box a couple of times (once with a gecko). The parents may either be concentrating on feeding the fledged owlet, or be withholding food to encourage the other two to fledge. During the last part of the night (5-6:30am), they began to take short stints in the entryway again.

May 21-22: Fledge!

Andrew Balinsky — 2005-05-22T 7:42:00-0500

On the evening of May 21st an owlet fledged! It climbed up into the entryway around 8:15pm, and looked around a lot. Then, just before 9pm, it began to wiggle forward, and launched itself forward, flying about 25 feet towards a cluster of leaves in a branch of the nestbox tree. It hit the leaves, but couldn't get a grip. It continued to flap and moved forward and down a bit to another cluster of leaves, nearly at the end of the branch. This time, it got a purchase, and was able to hang on. Another foot down, and it would have had to end up going all the way to the ground, probably ending up in the vegetable garden.
From this point, it began to climb and jump slowly up the limb. In about half an hour, we watched it climb about 15-20 feet up, and then lost it in the leaves. At one point, it made about a 5 foot vertical leap to the branch above its original branch.
In the morning we found the owlet 40 ft up in the tree, with a parent sitting at the base of the limb, about 3 ft away.
When we watched the video frames from the night, we saw that before the fledging, one owlet went on a flapping spree inside the box. It included wing stretching and a jump towards the ceiling. He got up into the entryway at 8:25pm. As he sat there, one of his siblings did a lot of jumping as well, while the third sat still, taking refuge between the rail and the far box wall. A probable feeding at 8:33 knocked the hole-sitter into the box, and the other active owlet got into the entryway. The third owlet became active, too. The hole sitter came down into the box, and we couldn't tell which one went back up. Then between 8:55 and 8:59, it left, and was replace in the hole by another one. We thought it would leave, too, but it did not.
There was nobody in the entryway from 9:13-10:39, during which there were only 3 feedings, so the fledged owlet is probably getting a good amount of the food. It seemed that there was quite a bit less food than there had been. There were several long periods with no owlets in the entryway, and during these times, we saw very few feedings. We can't really tell how many feedings there were during the hole-sitting periods. But it is likely the parents were withholding food to encourage fledging, and giving it to the fledged owlet.

May 20-21: Mouse on the Menu

Andrew Balinsky — 2005-05-22T 7:35:00-0500

This day was similar to the previous one: lots of flapping and jumping around the box. There was another party in the box, with one owlet kicking around nesting material.
Feeding seemed to start at 8:32pm, with a parent entering the box with a gecko. There were owlets in the entryway on and off, but no adults entered the box again all night. At 5:25am a mouse was delivered. The receiving owlet worked on it until close to 7:00am. Various owlets ate from it on and off until 11:30am, or possibly even 12:30pm.
One interesting observation: When an owlet is flapping, the others close their eyes for protection.
Daytime leaving: Mrs. Owl gone all day.

May 19-20: Jumping Jacks

Andrew Balinsky — 2005-05-21T22:54:00-0500

During the daytime of the 19th, the owlets again did lots of jumping and flapping inside the box. A new behavior is for them to fly up to one of the walls of the box and hang on there. At several points, there was one owlet in the door, another on the wall, and another in the process of jumping up, leaving nobody on the floor.
We witnessed one of the owlets kicking around the nesting material again in a frenzy. We still speculate that it is either nesting behavior practice, or a search for food.
There were very few inside-the-box feedings, so whichever owlet was in the doorway at the time got most of the food. There were no large items that were delivered inside the box.
Daytime leaving: Mrs. Owl gone all day.

May 18-19: Exercises

Andrew Balinsky — 2005-05-20T22:39:00-0500

The owlets were even more active this day, with large jumps towards the walls, the railing, and the camera compartment. There was lots of wing-stretching, too. They are definitely exercising their wings, and trying to do what they can to simulate flying inside the box. They sit in the entry for many periods around 15 minutes long at night, though not during the day. Often, one will come down with food, and another will go up shortly afterwards. It is not clear whether they are rotating, or whether the two older owlets are up there more often than the youngest. As the size differences have disappeared, we cannot tell for sure.
At one point, one of the owlets did a lot of digging and backwards kicking again, sending the nesting material flying. Perhaps it is a female, exercising an instinct for nestmaking.
Daytime leaving: Mrs. Owl gone all day.

May 17-18: Two Heads

Andrew Balinsky — 2005-05-18T 9:31:00-0500

During the day, the owlets did a lot of jumping inside the box. It looks like they can jump at least 6-8 inches, which will help them in exiting the box and climbing around the trees when they fledge in a few days. None of the owlets sat in the entryway until 8:02pm. At one point, a second owlet poked his head up, and there were 2 heads in the entryway.
We are now giving up counting the feedings, because it is just getting too unreliable. There is often an owlet in the entryway, so we miss feedings that way, and there is much crowding by the camera. We did see 2 geckos and 1 blind snake, but surely missed others. We watched 5 feedings in the 8pm hour through the spotting scope, so we know they're still happening regularly. The doorway owlet is able to take the food without falling down out of the entryway.
At one point, we watched one owlet preen its sibling's feathers. The flight feathers are looking quite well-developed, now.
Daytime leaving: Mrs. Owl gone all day.

May 16-17: Tree Adjustments

Andrew Balinsky — 2005-05-18T12:09:00-0500

The owlets are still very active inside the box. At one point, there were 2 owlets on the internal rail. There were 5 entryway sits by the owlets during the day, and 5 more at night. Although we only managed to count 29 feedings, there were 6 geckos and a blind snake (or perhaps earthworm).
On the evening of the 16th, we took down the metal flashing from around the tree. This was there to deter predators like raccoons and snakes. However, now there is a possibility of an owlet fledging to the ground, and we must make the tree available for him to climb back up (as it will, if this happens). One of the parents flew away from the bush behind the tree as we did this.
In the morning of the 17th, Andy climbed the tree to attach an external rail for the owlets to fledge to. I was expecting possible attacks from the parents, which they are likely to do in the 4th nestling week, but luckily, they sat tight. The owlets hunkered down. I then put a plastic cup in the entryway so nobody would panic and leave as I opened the camera compartment to add a second infrared illuminator. This one is higher up, to attempt to light the entryway even when the owlets are crammed against the lower one. Unfortunately, it slipped forward a bit as I closed the box, and is now partially obscuring the camera. But it doesn't block much of the action.

Hour	8	9	10	11	12	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	TOTAL
Deliveries	2	3	5	0	7	2	4	1	2	1	2	0	at least 29

Daytime leaving: Mrs. Owl gone all day.

May 15-16: Romper Room

Andrew Balinsky — 2005-05-17T23:49:00-0500

The 15th was a romper room, with lots of jump-flapping inside the box. The owlets jump-flapped to the railing and the doorway, and again attempted to climb the camera compartment plastic. Again, they are taking flying runs across the box. They are beginning to show tail feathers, though their tails are still pretty much rounded stumps.
We saw a similar number of deliveries, probably missing on the order or 5-10, due to darkness and occasional owlets in the doorway. When in the doorway, we've seen the owlets come down (or sort of fall down) with food. So perhaps in the act of taking food, they sort of get pushed in, or lose their balance. This helps the others, as it frees up the doorway, and prevents one owlet hogging all the food for a long time. During the night, there was only one doorway sit by an owlet in the middle of the night, for 7 minutes, plus 2 more during the 6am hour.
Mrs. Owl was again out all day, entering the box only during some of her night-time feedings.

Hour	8	9	10	11	12	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	TOTAL
Deliveries	5	0	7	3	5	3	1	4	3	3	5	0	at least 39

Daytime leaving: gone all day.