Chris -- SCREECH OWL nestbox 2013

[schlaf374]

a few from yesterday. I do recommend the daily viewer (access through the calendar dates)
I saw some deliveries, but I'm wondering if that objet in the last picture is something Papa Chris hurled in.

My guess a Papa Chris Gift !

[dale]

a few from yesterday. I do recommend the daily viewer (access through the calendar dates)
I saw some deliveries, but I'm wondering if that objet in the last picture is something Papa Chris hurled in.

My guess a Papa Chris Gift !

You're right, Linda! I found out -- it was from him!

[dale]

yum

[dale]

a nice video showing all four of the hungry owlets and Mr. Owl arriving with a moth and not having the foggiest idea how to feed an owlet.
http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/2013/20130322/video/20130322-021401-CDT.mp4

[Kris G.]

a nice video showing all four of the hungry owlets and Mr. Owl arriving with a moth and not having the foggiest idea how to feed an owlet.
http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/2013/20130322/video/20130322-021401-CDT.mp4

Talk about clueless!  Hope he learns soon to supply more than little bugs for these 4!

[Donna]

A moth??? 

[dale]

looking like an animated owl about to start talking

[dale]

I guess Mme. Owl got exasperated with the bugs and worms her mate was schlepping in.
Beware the PO'd female screech owl. She will be coming after bigger prey next...I can see her trying to shove Chris, kicking and hollering profanities, in there!

http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/2013/20130327/video/20130327-202950-CDT.mp4

March 27 – 8:29 PM CDT – Mme Owl entered the nest box dragging behind her, with one foot, the largest kill this year: a dove of some kind (...the dove is only visible in the first 40 seconds, but I included the full movie for the general interest of viewers). It looks to me to be too large to be an inca dove. A mourning dove has been suggested by one viewer (thanks RCG). However, I see neither at my bird feeder or in my neighborhood (which doesn’t rule out the possibility that they are here, it just makes me think of them as unlikely finds). Especially in the case of the inca doves, the aggressive white-winged doves appear to have displaced them. If what Mme Owl brought in was actually a white-winged dove, and the wing-edge markings appear consistent with that possibility, that would make this the largest prey item I’ve ever seen any of my owls deliver to the nest in 13 years of observation.

Typically weighing 4.9 oz, a white-winged dove is within the carrying capacity of a screech owl which, if memory serves, The Book of Owls states will take prey as heavy as themselves, typically 5.8 oz, with females generally weighing more than males.

If it is a white-winged dove, and one or both of my owls has learned to hunt them (as opposed to finding one that was already dead), then the food problems are over for this owl family. And the local white-winged dove population could certainly do with some thinning.

That said, I really don’t know what type of dove it is. Opinions welcome.

[Shaky]

If what Mme Owl brought in was actually a white-winged dove, and the wing-edge markings appear consistent with that possibility, that would make this the largest prey item I’ve ever seen any of my owls deliver to the nest in 13 years of observation.

13 years? Not quite on the edge of 17.

Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song, sounds like she's singing
Whoo, whoo, whoo.

[MAK]

If what Mme Owl brought in was actually a white-winged dove, and the wing-edge markings appear consistent with that possibility, that would make this the largest prey item I’ve ever seen any of my owls deliver to the nest in 13 years of observation.

13 years? Not quite on the edge of 17.

Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song, sounds like she's singing
Whoo, whoo, whoo.

    Sing it Shaky! 

[Donna]

If what Mme Owl brought in was actually a white-winged dove, and the wing-edge markings appear consistent with that possibility, that would make this the largest prey item I’ve ever seen any of my owls deliver to the nest in 13 years of observation.

13 years? Not quite on the edge of 17.

Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song, sounds like she's singing
Whoo, whoo, whoo.

    Sing it Shaky! 

I'd like to hear it! (Far cry from a moth) 

[Dumpsterkitty]

   

FINALLY getting their alien on!

[dale]

4 bits of assorted weirdness, 2 of which pertain to discovering that you have long legs.

[Dumpsterkitty]

"April 2 – I�ve been overdue in trying out my motion sensitive photography on the owls this year, as a follow-up to one night of experimentation last year. So, after a lot of work to make the motion sensor something I could remotely attach and detach from the nest box, building a tool for that purpose, and debugging a remote control pig-tail whose overly fine wires had broken in multiple places, I began installation of the rig around midnight of April 1/2.

With the camera equipment about 9 feet away from the nest box (though not in the nest box tree), the owls decided I was a nest site predator, despite our prior good relations, and somewhere on my neck and head I have multiple sets of talon marks to prove it. (One of these days, I must acquire a good hat.) Nonetheless everything was ultimately installed, and the camera operated from around 1:30 to 6:30 AM CDT.

One hundred forty nine photos were obtained that included an owl, of which 18 seem worthy of display (for one reason or another). You’ll find them mixed into the April 2 daily slide show in chronological order, along with the usual nest box interior images. You’ll start finding them at 2 AM, and stop finding them after 6:15 AM. (Note: Clicking on those images in the slide show will cause a larger version to be displayed.)

It’s clear to me that there’s still debugging needed in this setup. The sensor’s field of view seems to favor shots of the owls after they’ve dropped out of the nest box entry hole (leaving backwards, more often than not, in a process I have not seen, let alone caught on “film�), and are aggressively working to regain flight. Also, the focus is soft despite carefully locked focus that was based on direct measurements of the scene, and some time spent with a depth-of-field calculator. The same steps produced good focus for last year’s experiments, so obtaining good focus ought to be possible, even straightforward.

Desperately as we need the rain that kept Mme Owl in the nest box during the day today, its timing was inconvenient for me, in as much as it prevented any further experiments on the night of April 2/3, and the forecast indicates that it may well interfere with an attempt on April 3/4. Nonetheless, I’ll get other chances, and should be able to work out the problems (or learn to work with them to reasonable effect). "

Slide show at http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/2013/20130402/

[dale]

yeah, the color photos mixed into that daily slideshow are amazing, and it's always worthwhile to run through the dailies, at double-speed if you're in a rush - stuff goes ON in there!!