Friday, April 9, 2010

Screech owl ponderin's

Well, I just checked the Screech Owl Cam, hosted by Cathy and Bob Howell of Austin, and their female is sitting on eggs! This morning, she's snoozing. You can actually see her body going up and down with each breath.

Their update reads, "Mom Owl has laid 5 eggs, the first one on 3/20/10 and the fifth on 3/29. If all goes well, the eggs should begin hatching mid-April. However, Mom did not begin full-time incubation of the eggs until the 4th egg was laid. This is not normal owl behavior (she should've begun incubating after the first or second egg). Consequently, some of the eggs may not hatch. Also, if inadequate food supply is the reason for Mom's unusual behavior, it's possible that none of the eggs will survive. We will wait and see."

So, naturally, I'm guessing our Agatha may be sitting on eggs as well. We haven't seen her out roosting in a long while. Stay tuned!

2 comments:

Debi said...

Whoa! Love this! I had no idea about this live cam site and have just shared it on FaceBook with the Burr William's nature-loving crowd. So cool. Thank you.

Sheryl Smith-Rodgers said...

Yes, isn't it neat? Wait til the owlets hatch!! It gets even better! You can see our owl kids from last year if you click on the "owls" label on my blog homepage. They were so cute!

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