This week’s update covers the last two weeks of Tawny owlet footage. As you can imagine, there is a huge amount of footage to look through and I want to look at it all as it is why I create these set-ups… so I can be privy to a normally secret part of a tawny’s life. I feel I know this family intimately as I have watched every stage of their lives for the last few months! Not only do I look through the footage, but then I lift a selection of clips that I feel show the story of their development and also any interesting moments that I can capture. I then have to upload these clips into another piece of software that enables me to do some basic editing and to add my watermark. I then upload these ionto a playlist on YouTube, so I have all my footage together. YouTube clipos can then be embedded into my blog to share. … it is a lot of work and I spend a silly amount of time on this, but it is worth it as there is no better way to learn about a species than by watching it for long periods of time.
The owlets have been growing well and their plumage is gradually changing colour as the white fluffy down is replaced by the adult brown feathers. They appear fluffy for a very long period, but their wings are actually have almost completely developed their flight feathers, as you will see in some of the later videos.
These owlets have been fed more worms than I have ever seen before. In one night, they delivered more than 20 worms!
The owlets are getting a lot more active and the female leaves them on their own for the day….
With the days getting longer, we were treated to some lovely views of the female , in daylight…
I love this clip as the male comes up the garden , early in the evening, to deliver some food….
The owlets are hungry and the multiple worms do not fill them as much as the mice, voles and rats that are also delivered…
By the end of April, the owlets were starting to look out of the box. At a month old, they are almost ready to branch out into the trees.
They still spend a lot fo daytike sleeping, but have periods of alertness, where they are very active and regularly stretch, preen and flap, building up strength.
Within a few days, the owlets were spending more and more time on the platform. They would appear as soon as it started to get dark and then spend most of the night out there and the adults bring in food to feed them.
Regular wing flapping shows that their wing feathers are well developed… they are ready to go!
Now nearing 5 weeks old, the owlets are becoming very mobile on the platform and one spent time jumping up onto the roof as well!
This video shows the point at one of the owlets left (or fell!) off the platform. he was upright and flying, so will have then made his way back up into the trees.
The adults have continued to come and feed the smaller owlet that has remained in the box without its sibling. The female brought in, what looks like, a magpie fledgling and it presented as a very big meal for this single owlet.
If out in daylight, the owls will regularly get mobbed by other birds, particularly the corvids….
As I write this, the remaining owlet is still in the box, and being fed from the platform at night. He is over 5 weeks old now, but enjoying this easy life and seems reluctant to join his sibling in the trees.
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