 June
spent more than half of this beautiful spring day outside the nest for the
first time since she laid the second egg. She is shown here flying to a
nearby branch after a brief visit to the nest box this morning. While she
did not return for several hours, she did keep in touch with a reassuring
whine every couple of minutes. Inside the nest, the owlets
were busy practicing their winged leaps, preening and -- of course --
wheezing. Spencer made his boldest move yet with a very serious leap
toward the doorway. His technique was perfect, but he did not get enough
altitude and fell back to the floor. He did not attempt it again before
dark, but did spend a lot of time looking up at the door, and I'm
increasingly concerned that he might try to leave too early. Penelope, on
the other hand, was much more relaxed and spent part of her day sleeping.
While there were no daytime feedings today, Ward and June again started a
rapid-fire series of deliveries just after dark. As of midnight, they had
made more than a dozen of these deliveries and the owlets were still
wheezing for more. |