A real Ugly Duckling Story. Look how beautiful these 3 are now! They've grown and changed so fast and will probably fledge any day now. I've taken a few snips of them last night and this morning.
These 3 are so ready to go. They're wingersizing and flapping all over the place. I'm gonna miss them. Don't know how I'll drink coffee in the morning without them doing a show for me.
I watched these 3 goofballs today and just sat here and giggled to myself. One of the owlets was soooo sleepy and the other two were so concerned about it. Watch.
I watched all 3 Barneys come back into the box this morning. The first one came and found a nice, juicy rat for breakfast and the other two followed a few minutes later. I can't believe they're all still coming back to the box and I wonder if they've even made it outside the barn they're in. When they leave the box at night I can still hear them close by somewhere. I think they're still inside maybe on top of the box waiting for room service from their parents. Here's a little video of the owlet making fast work of it's breakfast.
A RaptorCentral Video
They weren't in the mood for group pictures this morning. 8-1-14.PNG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
All 3 owls are back inside their box today. We've all been amazed that they're all still returning because they are old enough to have left by now. R4 has joked that I should make a video of these owls with baritone voices since they are so big. LOL I wonder too if they've ever been outside the barn. At night when they leave their box I can still hear them somewhere close by.
I looked back in the info I could find and the 1st hatch was May 10th. That makes the oldest owlet 85 days old today or 12 weeks and 1 day old assuming 1 of these 3 is that 1st owlet. I believe this nest had 5 owlets to begin with but 2 died. In any event, these 3 are somewhere in the 12 week old range.
I did a little reading and owlets have been known to stay in the nest up to 86 days so these 3 are really pushing their luck. Here's some info I found on the Barn Owl Trust site.
Leaving home
At eight weeks old a typical fledgling Barn Owl has already learned to pounce but struggles to fly, at nine weeks it's flying fairly well, and by ten weeks it starts perfecting the art of landing, accurate pouncing, flying and hovering in various wind conditions. By eleven weeks many have made their first prey capture and some have already started to disperse. From 10 to 14 weeks the amount of food each one receives from the adults goes from an average of four small mammals per night down to zero. An owlet that continues to spend time around its parents (beyond c. 14 weeks old) may be chased away although lingering somewhere within the parental home range may be tolerated for longer as Barn Owls are not particularly territorial. - See more at: http://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/infopage....h.5dCcNag5.dpuf
It's going to be interesting to see what happens when the parents cut off the room service in the next week or so. Hunger is a powerful motivator. LOL
All the owlets are gone from the box now and I found out that their box is in an open air pavilion! All this time I thought they were inside a barn! Which makes it even stranger that they stayed for so long. LOL! I loved watching them and they sure did give us our money's worth didn't they. The parents, Dottie and Casper, came by to take a much deserved final bow. They did a fantastic job feeding these 3 all these weeks and are still doing it I'm sure. Awesome!
Dottie and Casper have made several visits to their house lately. I guess they're checking to see if any of those late blooming kids of theirs have come back home. LOL!
Dottie is a tease. She calls Casper to come to her and when he shows up she gets in mating position, he tries to accommodate her wishes but before he can do IT she gets up and moves away. LOL! In the Tweets on their site the Barn Owl folks say:
“@tbuanko: So can we expect Christmas owlets?” No we do not think so, they do not appear to be mating successfully- instead pair bonding."
I don't think "pair bonding" is what Casper has in mind but might be what Dottie is thinking. He just looks confused by it all. I made a short vid of Dottie the Tease from the last couple of days.
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Wed Jul 02, 2014 9:08 am
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It looks like the cleaning crew is there to sweep the gag shag. It must be almost time to fly. 
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