Ward
made two deliveries last night and followed them up with two daylight
deliveries this morning. The last one came at 10 am when he delivered the
large mouse shown here. This was his last of the day, as crows could be
heard chased him for much of the afternoon. With help from yesterday's
leftovers, however, there was plenty of food for all the owlets and they
appear to be developing very rapidly. If the crows continue their
harassment, Ward will have a difficult time keeping up with the owlet's growing
appetites over the nest few days. If the weather remains warm, the owlets
will soon be able to stay alone in the nest for many hours, so
that June should be able to help out with the hunting.
Every
time June gets up to turn around, the owlets scramble around underneath
her and make it very difficult for her to find a place to step.
Fortunately, the owlets are already very tough customers and just do some
loud peeping when she does step on one of them. That's Woody peeping out
from behind Dexter on the left, while Daphne is underneath June and about
to get stepped on. She and Dexter are already starting to show the beginnings
of brown feathers in their wings and back, while Woody remains pure
white. Feather preening is a major activity in the nest with June spending
many hours each day preening each owlet. The owlets are also chipping in
by preening some of their own feathers and have even been seen preening each
other's feathers since they were only four days old. Preening is an
important activity in the owl's social life that keeps their feathers
clean as well as helping to bind them together as a family.