Emily is
three weeks old today and can almost reach the doorway when she stretches
her legs as she is shown doing here. While she has not yet tried to climb
the owlet ladder, she should soon be ready to give it a try. Wally and
Theodore were four weeks old before they made their first climb in 1998,
but Peanut was closer to Emily's age when he did it a year earlier.
Climbing the ladder not only gives them a chance to leave the nest, but
also shows that they have some of the skills that are essential to
survival outside the nest. While they are tough enough to survive a fall
to the ground, they must be able to climb and perch so that they can walk
about on tree branches where they will be safe from predators until they
learn to fly. They should spend a couple of weeks in this
"branching" state and we can only hope that they will do some of
it on the owl rails so that we can keep an eye on them.
They again got plenty of food last night and are unusually quiet as they sleep warmly inside the nest on a cold rainy morning. June landed on the owl rail earlier today, but just looked in to check on them without entering. This, of course, triggered a frantic round of wheezing and scuffling in the nest.