Spencer
made three more trips to the door today, but did not remain there for long
enough to intercept any meals. He did, however, appear to be
considering the possibility of moving out of the nest when he reached down
and touched the step under the door with his foot. He seemed very nervous
about it though and jerked his foot back as if he had stepped into hot
water just after this picture was taken. I've heard so many stories about
careless owlets falling from the nest that I'm always amazed by the
caution that June's owlets exercise in deciding when they are ready to
move out.
June again made three daytime deliveries and entered the nest to feed the owlets on two of them. On the third occasion, she delivered another short-tailed shrew which she awarded to Spencer by reaching in from the rail.
Penelope
also made progress today with two attempts to get to the door. On the
occasion pictured here, she hung by her beak for more than ten seconds
before falling back inside. She is now just over ten inches tall, which is
slightly bigger than Spencer, but is not nearly as hyper about the
prospect of their upcoming move. For now, she is getting everything
she needs inside the nest box and I suspect that it will take some coaxing
from Ward and June to get her to leave. She even demonstrated the
patience that it takes to be a hunter this morning when she spent several
minutes watching a large carpenter ant crawl around inside the nest
until it was in a spot where she easily snapped it off the wall and ate
it. It was not much of a meal, but owls do eat insects and this is the
same "wait and pounce" technique that adult barred owls use.