 June is now
spending more time preening the owlets than she is feeding them. She
spends hours going over the feathers of each owlet while they signal their
approval with the preening
sound (100KB file). The owlets also spend quite a bit of time preening
their own feathers and occasionally help each other out. I first noticed
June preening Rufus when he was only one day old and she has steadily
increased her efforts since. That's Seymour in the shadows having
his head preened while Emily and Rufus wait impatiently for their turn.
Seymour has grown a lot in the last two days and I'm much more optimistic
about his prospects. In addition to preening her own feathers, June
also appears to be bathing on many of her daytime outings. I often see her
shaking her wet feathers as she perches on a branch outside the nest box.
What had been an early two-day heat wave ended yesterday and June has
spent the morning back in the nest box brooding and preening the owlets.
She has been calling for Ward, but he has not yet responded. |