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Monday, April 11, 2011

April 11-12

Billy and Annie by OCG Jr (Girlie frame by Angowl)

10:18 pm Lineup but Dad says (per OCG) "This ain't no Soup Kitchen !"

10:20 update:
All owlets made an appearance on the porch, and Dad arrived on top of box at 8:15 ! Owlets went back inside waiting for breakfast!
10:22 Parental Fly by ! ~~soar~~~~~~in front of box
2:47 update: See pic below from Coach30
Several flybys by parents all evening (almost every half hour or so) and a short flight to ground by Billy. All four are in the box for the day

Clyde Speaks! by Coach30

While it is unusual for barn owl parents not to feed fledglings for three days, they can live for several days without food. Then the concern would be dehydration as their liquid comes from the food they eat. Bonnie and Clyde are nearby and visiting them often. Since the owlets need to slim down a bit for flight, it may be that this is the best way to get them into flying form. At this point they are active and showing no signs of distress. Due to the nature of the dark lighting, it is a possibility, but not a certainty, that some treats were delivered in darkness to side of box and consumed quickly. Let's all trust that Bonnie and Clyde are doing what is best for the Owltlaws.- (Thank you, Tresbien!)

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12 barn owl fascinating facts

Discover 12 fascinating facts about the beautiful barn owl.
1 The barn owl was voted Britain’s favourite farmland bird by the public in an RSPB poll in July 2007.
2 Historically, the barn owl was Britain’s most common owl species, but today only one farm in about 75 can boast a barn owl nest.
3 Barn owls screech, not hoot (that’s tawny owls).
4 The barn owl can fly almost silently. This enables it to hear the slightest sounds made by its rodent prey hidden in deep vegetation while it’s flying up to three metres overhead.
5 The barn owl’s heart-shaped face collects sound in the same way as human ears. Its hearing is the most sensitive of any creature tested.
6 Barn owls are non-territorial. Adults live in overlapping home ranges, each one covering approximately 5,000 hectares. That’s a staggering 12,500 acres or 7,100 football pitches!
7 It’s not uncommon for barn owl chicks in the nest to feed each other. This behaviour is incredibly rare in birds.
8 In order to live and breed, a pair of barn owls needs to eat around 5,000 prey items a year. These are mainly field voles, wood mice, and common shrews.
9 Though barn owls are capable of producing three broods of five to seven young each year, most breed only once and produce, on average, only two and a half young. 29 per cent of nests produce no young at all.
10 91 per cent of barn owls post-mortemed were found to contain rat poison. Some owls die as a direct result of consuming rodenticides, but most contain sub-lethal doses. The effects of this remain unknown.
11 In a typical year, around 3,000 juvenile barn owls are killed on Britain’s motorways, dual carriageways and other trunk roads. That’s about a third of all the young that fledge.
12 Everyone can help barn owls. Leave a patch of rough grassland to grow wild thus creating habitat for voles, erect a super-safe deep nest box, volunteer for your local barn owl group, switch to non-toxic rodent control