It’s so fun to have an owl’s nest to watch every spring. The mother lays the eggs in late January and we usually can catch her pointy ears poking up out of the top of the nest at that time. The babies usually pop up sometime in late March (fluffly little guys) and then they start getting out of the nest in April. By the end of April, they’ve all flown the coop and we have to wait another year for a new batch!
The owls usually have 2 or sometimes 3 babies each year. This year, this mama had FOUR! (Not sure WH caught a good picture of all four, but of course in between pictures they were all lined up in a row with their mama.) They have now flown the nest, but boy, they were fun to catch sight of for several weeks this month. Hard to get photos because they are so far up in the tree, and the secondary location with a nest closer to the ground didn’t host owls this year. (You can see some of those photos from the closer nest from last year, here.)
I wonder if that mama owl has more or less work to do, now that all four have flown off?
Sheri stillnotfondoftheirtendencytogoaftercatsandsmalldogs,though
Yay – the owls!! My favorite blog post every year! I’m still looking at the tree every time I drive by. It usually takes a few weeks after they fledge before I kick the habit of checking for them.
I still look up there, too, Sheryl! I usually try to take a different route home for a few weeks, because the tree looks so empty once they’ve moved on. 🙁
Cool, thanks for the post and the update!!!!!
Glad you like the owls, too, Janene!
I had no idea they were so fluffy when young — thanks for sharing these photos!
That’s the first thing we see when we catch sight of them after they are born – fluffy fluffy feathers poking out over the top of the nest.
Wow! Those are some big babies!!!! I love seeing all the pics Mr B takes! Awesome job!
Aren’t they, though? It would be fun to see them in the early days, but we don’t get to peek at them until they’re old enough to pop over the top of the nest!
Kind of like the grief after ripping part of a project! 🙂
Love seeing the owls, each year. Thanks for the wonderful photos!
I love the owls! 🙂 How about some owl notecards?