#18 Fledging in a Week or Less!

Dear Owlists,

As hard as it was to lose Lucky, we'll be losing the view or our two owlets from the nest box in a week or less, according to the Audubon article I just read. And given the behavior of Collister, in particular, I'd say he may not stay for another week. We just hope he doesn't jump before he's ready. Also, I don't mean to sound selfish. All of the cliches about being empty-nesters might begin to appear in this blog, however.

Some of our observations include a lot of wing flapping by both Filly and Collister. Their wing spans fill the nest box already. Fortunately they seem to take turns spreading their wings fully, so as to not crash into each other. Also, we believe it is Collister who has been halfway out of the nest box. He propped himself up with half of his body out the door yesterday and stayed their for quite awhile, much to our dismay. (See video.) Finally, Terry went outside and that seemed to scare him back in. During that time, though, Filly became quite agitated, apparently sensing something was up and flapped and stretched at one point, as well. It doesn't take a lot of anthropomorphism to surmise that "If little brother can do it, I can do it better." So...will they stick around another week? We truly hope so, so they have the best chance of surviving on their own. Apparently, they stick around the neighborhood for a few days (at least) after fledging, so our cameras will be permanently attached to our tripods, braving the elements at that point. (We got some hysterical video two years ago of our three owlets scratching in rhythm.)

We've been successfully live streaming now, so check out "Bird Talk With Terry Rich" on YouTube if you want to catch some of the live action. They are more active during the day and usually Peach is out of the box, so the babies are visible a lot more of the time. Also...the last week!!!

Coming soon: We've become aware of an ornithologist who studied screech-owls in Iowa over a hundred years ago. Her writing, her science, and her art are noteworthy and entertaining. Check out Althea R. Sherman.

#17 Sad Day

We are sad to say we've lost our #3 owlet late on May 12. It hatched only 8 hours or so after #2 and started out fine. But it tended to keep its head down more than its siblings. As a result, it started to fall behind in getting food. We named it "Lucky," after another local street, and with some hope that giving it a positive name would help turn him around. The young are very competitive when food is delivered, and any weakness leads to a downward spiral in that individual's health.

The female, Peach, only laid three eggs. The average is 5 and some lay up to 7. Clutch size is the result of many factors. One possible reason for a small clutch is inadequate nutrition. That could also be a factor in the failure for young to thrive. I think Lucky was born with a problem, but we’ll never know. We had become more attached to these little owls than we realized. It is a sad day for us today.

Filly and Collister are now growing rapidly, and we wish them the best! And they can be assured that their mom, Peach, is on the lookout!

#16 YouTube Happiness for the Owl Family

Dear Owl Friends,

Just when we were about to give up on live streaming on YouTube (and actually priced Vimeo) Terry got a response to his many appeals regarding our posts. They apologized! We're not sure we're completely in the clear, but if the last feed is any indication--we've been up for 21 hours nonstop. So, if you want to leave it running all day or all night, you just might be able to do so.

In other news, the owls all have names now. The mama is Peach, the papa is Blue, and the babies are #1 Filly, #2 Collister, and #3 Lucky. (All the names come from local street names.) Filly is the biggest and most vigorous. Collister is just a little bit smaller and rivals her pretty well. Lucky is much smaller, but is feisty and we think he'll be OK. Once we can see all three owlets at one time, I'll include their names. Right now, we're still having trouble distinguishing Filly from Collister because they are so similar at this point.

For a change, here's a link to a YouTube clip that I posted on my channel today. The first portion is both adult owls in real time and the second portion is in slow motion. https://youtu.be/_Mg2awUXxX8
Check it out.

And, here is a moment that had us all cheering. Lucky busted out of the pack, poked around the box, and then quickly snuggled back in for the warmth of his siblings. He isn't usually so adventuresome, so we're happy to see him showing some vigor and initiative.

Thanks for watching. Remember to add your email to the email bar at the top of the page and you'll be notified every time there's a blog.

#15 YouTube Sadness-Trail Cam Fun

Dear Owl Lovers,

If you've been trying to watch the YouTube channel found on Bird Talk With Terry Rich, you have noticed it starts and stops. Please tell your YouTube friends we need some advice on how to get them to stop accusing us of copyright violations. They are owls living in our yard in our nest box on our nest camera. We are stumped.

In the meantime, we'll keep re-upping the feed because we're not actually getting "strikes" on YouTube. Just warnings. Even our appeals have been been denied. So, it's just frustrating--not a deal-breaker so far. (They claim it has something to do with not having actual people because of Covid-19.)

So, thanks for your patience. We'll keep posting here and restarting YouTube.

Right now, the owlets are getting bigger and soon they'll be more visible because they'll get markings and because the mother, Peach, will leave during the day.

Thanks for watching!