 Two
hours after June returned from her early morning break, Ward landed in a
nearby tree with a mouse and hooted for June to come out for it. She
responded with a few gentle whines but refused to even climb up to the
door. After a bit more hooting, Ward gave up and delivered the mouse
directly to the nest. He is shown here just before flying away after reaching
down to give the mouse to June. She accepted it politely, but dropped it
on the floor after he left. It remained there until 4:30 in the afternoon
when she was finally hungry enough to eat it. This is the first time that
June has stored food in the nest before the owlets have hatched. If Ward
is able to keep up this pace, it could be a very good year. |
For
the first time ever, Ward brought home more food than June could eat last
night. She is shown here peeping out of the nest at 5:30 this morning,
just before she went out for a five-minute break. It had been a night when
Ward delivered at least six meals and the bone crunching that followed two
of them suggested they were substantial. There was no whining when she
returned to the nest as she devoted all of her energy to incubating and
rotating the eggs.