After almost ten minutes of looking up at Emmett's tail,
Abigail decided to make her move. This time, she carefully examined the
owlet steps and even gnawed on them before she made her leap. At first it
looked like she had missed again and was just going to hang there by her beak --
as she is shown doing here -- before falling back. Finally, her feet found the owlet steps and she forced her way up into the door on Emmett's
left. Emmett completely ignored her and went back to the floor of
the nest just seconds after she arrived. While Emmett had only spent
a few seconds up there on his first trip, Abigail seemed to be fascinated
by the view and spent almost ten minutes looking around before she went
back into the nest box. While the older owlets were up in the doorway,
Ernie was reacting with what could only be called a panic attack. He
wheezed continuously and again churned up all of the wood chips with his
frogman routine. 
Ward
and June are apparently satisfied with progress and have again stepped up
food deliveries. The owlets now leap high enough to grab the prey out of
their parents mouth before it even gets to the doorway. They have also
been reacting wildly to the many deliveries that are occurring tonight. Click
here (200KB sound file) to listen to a 10pm delivery that starts with
June's whine in the distance and finishes with a wild combination of owlet
wheezing and chattering. It sounds a lot like June's chattering sound and
this is the first time I've heard it from an owlet. June spent much of the
day hunting from nearby perches, including the owl rail, as she is seen
doing here. If the older owlets follow last year's schedule, they will
depart on Monday, but it might happen at any time. Let's hope that it
happens in the daytime so that we can see it.