From Jason Fowler
This is why you leave owls alone when they are on eggs. People think the owl isn’t stressed standing under her talking loudly with other people.
I haven’t left this branch in 19 days.
It’s 4°F. The wind is 25 mph. The wind chill is -15°F. (That’s -15C, 40 kmh, and -26C respectively.)
I am a Great Horned Owl, and I am incubating three eggs that cannot survive one hour without my body heat.
- I cannot leave to hunt. My mate brings me food, when he can find it.
- I’ve lost 15% of my body weight since I started sitting.
-My feathers are caked with ice. I cannot preen.
- I rotate my eggs every 30 minutes, even at 3 AM.
- I have 9 more days of this before they hatch.
Beneath me, three heartbeats depend on my stillness. If I leave for 20 minutes, they die. If I shift wrong, they freeze on one side. If a predator comes, I must fight without abandoning the nest.
Motherhood is not a feeling. It is a 28-day siege.
I got attacked by an owl at night once jogging on a mountain trail in the early spring, it no doubt had a nest nearby and assumed I was there to eat it’s brood.
Not really attacked, harrassed, it dive bombed me for a half mile, brushing the top of my head one time. Freaked me out. Followed me for maybe a mile even after it stopped diving too. Others had similar incidents in that area too I later learned. I think it was a great horned owl.
There are lots of articles during owl baby season of people getting chased off, having their hats taken, etc. With the investment and risk the owls are taking to have babies, one can understand why they’re determined on keeping you away. They know what a danger you are, but they’ve put their lives on the line already to make sure their babies live.
I’m glad you didn’t get scratched! They’re just trying to be good owl parents.
I thought it was a little paranoid of the owl though, I’m on a beaten trail, even if it was after dark, and it’s not like I’m climbing trees or anything.
Unrelated owl news, I hear them where I am here, I wonder if they are why all the squirrels disappeared. I had fed birds and had over a dozen squirrels, and this last year they all disappeared, either an owl grabbed them out of their nests, idk if they do that, or a pine martin or something did. Chipmunks are unaffected.
Their territories cover miles, so if you’re in sight, you’re too close. They do seem to often choose unrealistic spots to get privacy, but since they can’t build their own nests, they set up shop where they can.
They try to hide evidence of where the nest is (poop, eggs shell bits, etc) to keep predators from sniffing it out too. So even if you don’t see it, they don’t know you’re not looking for it.
Owls will gladly snack on squirrels, but baby squirrel season is also starting around now, chipmunks look to have a later start.
But the squirrels are sleeping at night when the owls are most active, what I was wondering is if the owls find the nests and do night raids on them? I don’t see why they wouldn’t.
Owls are opportunists and will generally eat whatever they can get those grabby feet on. They will also extend hunting hours, often during winter, if they aren’t finding enough food at night.
Where do I subscribe for the updates?
Day 20, still haven’t left the nest
Once they hatch, she does get some short breaks to go to the pantry or bathroom, but she will still be with her owlets as much as possible for the next 2 months until they leave the nest. She still has to keep them safe. The parents will still try to help them get through their first winter, and then the kids will be on their own to find their own territories.
Report here every day around this time. There will be more owl information than you will ever require!
Here as in this thread ou the sub itself? Give specifics plz cuz i really wanna follow this! Btw, is this usa/europe/asia?
I scrolled the creator’s feed, and while they have some recent owl shots, none are what this one is, a Great Horned Owl. I’m thinking this was an older photo of his that he made the infographic with. This is the time of year they nest though, so I will have a bunch of owl baby photos soon. There are usually nest cams you can find online as well, so you can see owlets hatch and what crazy things dad brings them home to eat. Snakes and fish are particularly exciting to me.
I post a few posts a day about owl facts and owls from all over the world every day. I will also be returning to my own work with wildlife in March, so I get stories from there and other rehab hospitals as well. I’m in the eastern US, the photographer from the image is in Wisconsin, and while a lot of what I share is from the US since I know how to find that stuff the easiest, I try to find things from all over. There are around 250 species of owl, so I have a lot to choose from.
I try to get everyone’s questions answered, so if you comment, I will almost always see it, and I’ll do my best to answer any questions you have, it doesn’t have to be related to the post, just ask and I’ll either reply to you if it’s something small, or if it’s more complicated, I can do a new post on it.
ok, tks for the answer! about the cams, i usually have bird watching hq youtube channel on the background while on the computer
Very nice! I see I’ve watched a few of their videos.
I gave updates the one spring on a Great Horned family that took over an eagle’s nest and they had two owlets. There were a few dramatic eagle raids where momma owl got knocked clean out of the nest, but she was ok and both babies made it to adulthood. Sadly, it looked like one got some poisoned food shortly after it left on its own, but I believe the other made it until it was fully independent.
Does her mate bring her food at least?
Yes! His job is not too much easier than hers. He will feed himself, the Mrs, and start storing food in nearby caches for when the babies hatch. This is why it is super critical to protect these birds even more than usual during this period. Should anything happen to mom or dad, everyone is in trouble.
My mate brings me food, when he can find it.
As a good mate does!
Why is one egg colder? 🥺
Mom not big enough. That’s what the rotation is for.
That can be a factor as well depending on clutch size, but we are still learning much more about the significance of egg rotation. Check my other reply in this thread.
This is an area I need to do a lot more learning in. It seems like a very complex and miraculous process.
If I shift wrong, they freeze on one side.
Are you referring to this?
Scientists believe this ensures even and steady temperature, maintaining the internal shell membrane, and also proper distribution of nutrients.
If you’ve ever seen a bird nudge its eggs with its beak, you may have wondered what all the fuss is about. Turns out, the behavior is a critical part of incubation, and each species may have its own egg-turning recipe to hatch a healthy chick, a new study shows.
Scientists believe that most birds rotate their eggs to ensure that the embryo gets enough albumen—the mixture of water and protein that makes up the “egg white” part of an embryo and provides nutrients to the developing chick. Too little albumen leads to an underdeveloped and usually sickly chick, research on domesticated birds shows. Few studies have investigated egg turning in wild birds, in no small part because the adults are, naturally, in the way.
To get an unprecedented look at what’s happening in the nest, Shaffer tricked seabirds into treating plastic eggs with sensors hidden inside as the real thing. Researchers have previously slipped artificial eggs outfitted with sensors into the nests of unsuspecting birds, but Shaffer’s team is the first to capture “a full turning” of an egg. That’s because the loggers record 3D orientation (thanks to a combination of three-axis accelerometers and magnetometers), as well as temperature.
Nesting and hatching are much more complex and problematic than most media portrays them. I did a post on hatching before, and it takes about 24 hours from when the shell pips (first crack through to the outside) to when the bird is free from the shell. That’s a lot of physical exertion to expect of a newborn! (Here’s a second hatching post I found.)
I’m afraid it’s going to be even more difficult when they hatch, at least for another month.
She at least gets to stretch to go on pantry runs and bathroom breaks! Pappa needs to kick up the hunting though.
I sure hope so! I guess fluffy owlets will stay warm easier than when curled up inside a wet egg.
I wonder if a properly incubated egg is just like laying in one of those salt water flotation tanks… 🤔
I did that once and it was pretty ok.
