Almost Grown

Wally and Theodore now look almost like adults and are slowly learning to hunt for their own food. This picture of Wally was taken just after an unsuccessful attempt to dive on several smaller birds that were perched on branches below him. Wally's loud and awkward crash through the branches gave them plenty of time to escape and alert all of the other birds in the area. Wally then fled to this branch with an angry swarm of birds harassing him. Theodore is more cautious and rarely tries to hunt in daylight. Both of the young owls have been wheezing and hunting throughout the night in the immediate area of my house for the last two weeks. They perch near lighted areas and pounce on small rodents; such as the moles that plague neighborhood lawns. While they are able to meet most of their needs with such easy prey, they must learn to catch a much wider variety of prey to make it through the fall and winter. The absence of the nighttime food arrival calls of the adults tells me that they are encouraging the learning process by forcing the owlets to hunt for themselves. One of the stranger aspects of the young owl's behavior has been their repeated attempts to tear the roof off of the nest box where they were born. On at least two occasions, one of the owlets has viciously clawed and chewed on the roof shingles for as long as five minutes. Neither has entered the nest box and no damage is apparent from a distance. The other surprise is the lack of change in their only call. The fourteen-week-old owlets are still wheezing exactly as they did when they left the nest.

   Back To: Summer 1998