yesterday evening:

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlet 2 has left the nest.

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlet 2 is in the nest box tree.

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlet 2 just flew to the other hackberry tree - a much more difficult flight than owlet 1's.

excellent picture!!!

and thanks for posting the movie links and associated text!!

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlet 1 (or some owlet) has left the nest and is sitting on the owlet rail.

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlet 1 has left the rail and is now in the nest box tree.

and then the flight that Kris posted about.

that is a great first flight.
best of luck to all the little owlets.

they clearly do play dead when they're scared. Here's what happened when Chris opened the box to take them out for a couple minutes while he did maintenance to help make fledging safer (and to take the annual group portrait)

the first one

I like the archive setup a lot -- if you put it on the highest speed, you can scan through the 500 dailies in a few minutes. Not that I've even had time for THAT every day . . .

HAHAHAHAHAHA. feathery ceilings are the new black.

I like this one--the one owlet seems to be trying to gesture to illustrate a particularly delicate point, and its 2 siblings are, respectively, saying,
 
"where on earth did you get that pedicure?"

and

"eeeeeeew -- that is the grossest splinter I've ever seen!!"

the other two are checking for text messages

Chris writes:

April 29 – 6:00 AM – The weather forecast for today is good (ten degrees cooler than yesterday, but still clear), so, with time flying as it is wont to do, my plan is to take down the nest box this afternoon. That’ll let me attach the owlet rail, clean the camera windows, and take this year’s owlet group photo. The live video will continue throughout that process, but will mostly show an empty nest box, so that should be exciting.


three from yesterday

I haven't had time to be reviewing the daily 500 captures as in previous years, but here are a couple, including a "hairy eyeball" shot for Ei:

Chris writes:
April 27 – An owlet found its way into the entry hole on the 26th, and many of the others soon followed its example. This is, in effect, a signal that the first owlet will leave the nest inside of a week. Data from past years (2013, 2012) indicates first exit (presumably by the eldest owlet) early or late on its 29th day. That suggests April 30 of this year.  I am not ready, but it’s going to happen anyway, and real-soon-now. Yikes.

the one I caught (funny owl butt sticking out):

Chris writes:

April 19 – For the first time this year, an owlet not only made a serious effort at climbing, but succeeded, in as much as the perch was successfully perched upon. Either they just haven’t bothered to make any serious climbing attempts until now, I’ve somehow missed them, or this is a remarkable first attempt.  Regardless, the video will be even more interesting from here on out.

here's one I found of the event

I'm still waiting to find one with at least 10 eyes to the cam, but in the meantime, these are nice

here's a clear one of all 5

...and the little one is MUCH littler, easy to miss in the crowd.
It hatched days after the other four.
In this capture it's in the front row and still looks tiny.

I was hoping to find a shot of all 5, but all I can find is 4. Hope they're all still there!