Early Breakfast (3-19-98)
June must
have been hungry this morning. When Ward approached the nest with this mouse, she went
nuts. The hoots and squeals you hear in this 155KB
audio file are mostly June. The crashing sound at the 23 second point is Ward landing
on the owl rail. June then reached up to grab the mouse from Ward as he stuck his head
inside. I think Ward is having some difficulty finding enough food because of the two week
early start of this nesting season. His prey species may not be as far ahead of schedule
as June is. The rain we are now having also makes it more difficult for owls to find their
prey. Soggy leaves and grasses don't produce loud rodent footsteps.
Pirouette
How does
a 23-inch owl turn around in a 14-inch room? Slowly -- she sticks her tail up in the
air, puts her nose on the ground, and does a klutzy pirouette. She performs this move
(seen at right) a couple of times each hour as she changes her incubating position. June
has been much more serious with her incubating in the last couple of days. She spends at
least 95% of the day on the egg, but does go out several times during the night. Her
departures leave the egg unattended for from thirty minutes to two hours. June now seems
much more comfortable in the nest and has even slept through a couple of loud blue jay
visits. Ward has yet to enter the nest