Content & Photos © Bill Schmoker unless noted otherwise. Thanks for visiting- drop me a comment!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Busy Night at the Valmont Owl Box

Business picked up a lot last night at the Valmont Plant Great Horned Owl nest (viewable on the Excel Energy Owl Cam.) Since mid-January or so, owls have been making visits about once a night, but rarely staying long. Sometimes they have left behind tracks in snow, but besides that the cam hasn't had much action.

One or both GHOWs came to the box about 6 times last night, and one has been there all morning. Not only that, the game of "guess the prey" has begun!

First, at about 9:30 last night, an owl arrived with what looks like a mouse. It dropped it on the floor of the box and left it uneaten- maybe a gift for the momma-to-be from daddy owl?
About an hour later, the mouse was still sitting there, but shortly thereafter, an owl arrived and dispatched it. Wonder if they taste better cold?
But that was just the hors d'oeuvres- the main course arrived at dawn, as an owl arrived out on the perch with breakfast dangling below it:
What was on the breakfast menu? A duck- perhaps a Mallard by the looks of it? Now that's good eating! As of "press time" (my lunch break ~12:45 pm), the owl hadn't left since this morning. I wonder if the female is about ready to lay eggs and begin incubating?


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The owlets in Bakersfield are about a week old now. Great camera action there if you like bird cams. Good to know Valmont will have owlets to follow too (hopefully anyway).

http://www.cs.csubak.edu/owlcam/camera.php

Amy said...

Thanks for the individual frames, Bill. I'm diggin' it.

BTW, I picked up some Manic Panic the other day.

brdpics said...

All Right! Did you go for the Vermilion Flycatcher red?

Amy said...

It looks close to it while in the bottle. I'll take it to the hair stylist for her perusal and send a pic after the eventual goopage.

Anonymous said...

A few nights ago, there were 2 owls in the box at the same time - very cool!