That time of the year again. See Sydney with her chick just hatched. Note - short commercial.

Now that's cute. First owlet hatched last night!

And we can embed the live video here! Sweet!

Thanks, Steve. Dad brought in hot breakfast. a mouse & 3 gophers.

The Eagle cam is here.

Happen to check the webcam at 3pm today. Got to see the afternoon snack of a gopher...yum!

Thanks SteveC for posting the live feed into the post!

Pretty cool -- they have enough light to watch at night, too.

I just checked. There were 700 viewing!

Bindi has hatched. That makes 3 potential flying rodent exterminators. As many as 1700 viewers at times. I wonder if "Ned" will be next?

All eggs hatched. With 7 mouths to feed Dad is doing his best to keep the rodent population in control. He's been averaging 8 rodents per morning the past few days.

I was enjoying watching this evening. Is there a web page where they report the owlets progress?

It's clear that we all enjoy mother owl nourishing and protecting her babies. If you are at all squeamish, don't watch this video of a soccer player and the other team's owl mascot.



The player is facing jail time & a $26 fine. CNN report here.

Watching the Owl Cam, I've seen Mel bring in gophers and such half a dozen times. And each time before he leaves, he jumps on her back and... It's pretty funny.

The owlets are getting bigger -- they are quite a sight when Sydney stands up.

One of the owlets, probably the 1st hatch (Meltilda) is starting to feed itself and noticable bigger than the others. What a difference 2 weeks makes in the hatching order.

Here is a well visited link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vufEqpZZql0

Interesting video. Are there two different girls in that video or are they one and the same?

Where I live, I'm not far from the hills and canyons. There is a fair amount of wildlife near. On walks through the neigborhood a few years ago there were a few heads of cats on the sidewalk. The first thing I thought when I saw the bodiless cats is people who hate cats and hurt cats; however, recently I read that owls prey on cats and if they choose to pick up a cat that is too heavy for them to carry in flight they will bite the cat's head off. Oh my, that was a shocker. I keep a close eye on my cats and I watch the sky for big birds.

I have lost many cats to Owls and Red Tailed Hawks. They also kill their other competition for food,snakes.They usually don't kill cats for food but to eliliminate their competitors.

Rod, thank you for the info on Owls eliminating their competition....makes sense, I never thought of their preying on cats for this reason.

Steve, I love the live web cam of the owls. Thank you for posting it. There happens to be another live web cam from Starr Ranch in Corona, CA. At work, employees have been watching the San Clemente and Starr Ranch web cams. Starr Ranch is a really cool place. The company I work for took all the employees there a few years ago. At the ranch, employees compete against each other in teams. We rounded up cattle with a bull in the pen, we fired shot guns at clay pigeons, we had quick draw competitions with bullet proof glass between competitors (we may have been shooting blanks??), we had a huge BBQ, and lots more.

If you need a break from the news of the world, check out the webcam of the "owletts". So far, all 6 have not only survived but are thriving. All full of white, puffy feathers. A few nights ago, between Mon & Dad, the family was able to share 24 rodents. These babies are well fed. 6 Future rodent patrollers!

Amazing! I was just watching the live webcam for not even 2-3 minutes, and Papa Owl enters the nest, mounts Mama Owl, and ... well, you get the idea! And right in front of the litle Owls, too! Looked just like a couple of cats going at it. It was "wham, bam, thank you ma'am", and about 30 seconds later, it was over and he left to do whatever it is Papa Owls do next!

CaT

> It was "wham, bam, thank you ma'am"...

You mean he's still doing that? I saw that repeated time and again the first few days after this thread started. It seems that his his standard operating procedure, every visit. Mercy!

...on another note: I'll bet it really stinks inside that owl box!

The male owl IS displaying standard operating procedure in his "greeting" of the female; you see this across the board with all of the owl boxes. Comments by the experts have been that it is more of a "ritual" act, rather than one of procreation.

So it's not really a "Birds & Bee" thing, then?