Looking for the Owl Channel Blog? Click below please for the new location !: 12/31 to 01/12 Overnight Report.. Please see previous post for OCG's Year End Tribute Video

Sunday, January 1, 2012

12/31 to 01/12 Overnight Report.. Please see previous post for OCG's Year End Tribute Video

17:39 Roy goes out to chase an owl and swiftly returns
17:39 Dale returns to the Hideout
18:24 Bonding
18:47 Bonding
19:57 Both flew off
19:58 Roy returns
20:08 Dale returns
20:19 Roy flew off
20:33 Dale flew off
20:44 Roy returns to HP with treat for Dale, but flies off
20:55 Both return
23:29 Dale on roof
00:00 Dale flew off (Fireworks spooked her. Happy New Year Dale!!!)
00:19 Knobby-kneed owl with criss-crossed wingtips lands on HP, flies to porch,
verrrrry hesitant to go inside, once inside relaxes, then flies off (pEarl or
Belle perhaps????) (DodgerGirl is not a conspiracy theorist, in theory)
00:36 Mystery owl flies out of hideout
00:56 Roy lands on lookout cam, flies to HP and into Hideout
01:59 Roy goes onto porch, then hops around lower perches, flies to HP
02:44 Roy goes back into Hideout
Happy New Year everyone !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/litlvxn/sets/72157628658624205/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tweetkathleen/6610726389/in/photostream
Roy with treat for an absent Dale

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coulee/6611186067/in/photostream
Dale at midnight

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrdrake001/?saved=
GeekLady's photos

Roy & Dale were on the porch at 4 o'clock and flew off at 4:09. Roy left again at 4:37am.
Both returned to the HPs at 5:01 and left at 5:05.
Both returned and went into the box at 5:09. Lots of allopreening!

Woohoo! They are inside for the day! http://www.flickr.com/photos/30690443@N06/6612706687/in/photostream

For those who weren't with us last year, take a look at the old cam in these pix posted by OCG:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60261286@N06/

Happy 2012 everyone!

ETA: For those who don't use Facebook, you'll want to share OCG's fabulous video of the first two Hideout clutches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKWQjt22v90&feature=youtu.be

Thank you DodgerGirl and Tresbien!

12-31-11 8:44pm Roy Brings Dale Snack-Dale's Not There

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