 Once
the adults were gone, it was Emmett who seemed to know what to do next. He
wanted to get to the roof and chose a path that no other owlet before him
had dared. As he balanced on the end of the owl rail as shown here, I did
not believe that he was capable of a vertical leap that high -- but he had
other ideas. After almost five minutes of intense concentration, he
flapped his wings, pushed off with his legs, and landed squarely on the
roof. As he flapped his wings and pranced around on the roof, Abigail went
back to the other end of the owl rail and made the much easier jumps that
allowed her to join him. Her path was the same one that all of the other
OwlCam owlets have followed in past years. You will notice that they have
not yet grown tail feathers, so that anything more than a short
uncontrolled flutter would be impossible for them. |
Soon after Abigail arrived, Emmett tried an even riskier jump to a branch
almost ten feet away. This time he missed, but fluttered harmlessly to the
lower branch where he is seen here. Undaunted, he made two more winged
leaps that put him back on the roof with Abigail, where they both left as
young barred owls normally do. They jumped over to the trunk of the big
pine tree and climbed it by gripping with their talons and beaks while
flapping their wings for lift. At sunset, they had both made their way to
a branch high above the nest box where June is shown preening them in the
picture below. She and Ward could be heard making many food deliveries to
this spot throughout the nigh. Ernie's loud wheezing far below assured
that he was not forgotten as he waited for his meals in the doorway of the
nest box. He should be ready to join the older owlets very soon. |
