wonderful video. what terrific owls. thanks!

They haven't entirely left their schmoo-selves behind

that's what cracks me up; they morph.
If you look at the first vampire shot of the season (reply #105 below) and compare it to this one, it's hard to believe it's the same beast.

We never did get a fourth hatch - that egg's still in there with the 3 chicks.

The Tribune's recent short video: http://www.chicagotribune.com/videobeta/?watchId=11822277-4968-403e-8099-e99d4dc63070

Both of these give a much clearer picture of the layout of the Evanston scrape situation than the cam shots, muggy as they are, can.

Still shots of the Evanston scrape, also by the Tribune: http://www.epl.org/falconcam/tribfalconpics.html

hard to imagine it's the same creatures in these two...

wow! SOMEONE takes after her mom - "when I grow up I'm gonna be a PIRATE, TOO!"

band practice

one more. Looks pretty intense in there.

the owlets have left the shmoo stage (of a few days ago) and entered the vampire stage.

spectacular documentation of a banding! thanks so much. I love the one where they are first approaching the scrape and one of the birds is backed up into the corner, displaying as much ferocity as she can muster.

Mme. Owl leaving for her day job, after practicing punk songs all night
http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/2010/20100504/mme-owl-looking-out.jpg

Great pic dale.

Chris writes:
This is Mme. Owl peering at me from the nest box, across about 100 feet to my house’s (closed) back windows, and some distance past the windows. Given that it was brighter outside than inside, that’s not easy an easy thing to do, but owl eyes are extraordinary organs. Note that her "ear" tufts are raised – this means she was either agitated, or trying to camouflage herself, or that she was doing the latter because of the former. I didn’t so much as open my back door since about 4 AM, so either she was keeping an eye on me (troublemaker-for-owls that I am), or she’s just keeping an eye on everything, and I was the most interesting thing going on at the time.

Mme. Owl leaving for her day job, after practicing punk songs all night
http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/2010/20100504/mme-owl-looking-out.jpg

they sure do seem to be working on a punk band

check out those little wings

 the shmoo cam has been turned on

We may have four chicks this morning, hard to say since Nona is, to lift a phrase from Chris Johnson, sitting on the family. The cam actually refreshes every two minutes.