 It may have been obvious to me that Rufus was too small to
swallow a whole mouse, but it was not obvious to him. Ten minutes after
June went out for a late afternoon meeting with Ward, she returned with a
mouse that was about the same size as the one she had used in mouse school
just ten hours earlier. This time, she simply put it in his mouth sideways
and then flew out again to join Ward. Rufus quickly flipped the mouse from
its sideways position to the "head first" position (see picture)
that June had
shown him earlier in the day and swallowed the whole thing! Emily (on the
right) could
not believe that it was all gone and spent the next five minutes biting
and pulling on his beak to try to retrieve her share. Seymour, meanwhile,
got knocked over in the excitement and spent the next ten minutes acting
as a pillow for Rufus and Emily. He was not able to get up until June
returned to the nest and pushed them away. If it is possible for an owl to
get indigestion, Rufus should have had a bad case of it last night. |