Snowed in

Another wave of snow for Boulder, Colorado today- no biggie for an early-nesting Great Horned Owl, right? Check the time signatures to see how fast she was buried by the onslaught. Not much to do but hunker down and keep that egg warm (37° C warm, in fact, per BNA Online.) But even an incubating GHOW needs a break, apparently, as mom left the egg uncovered for about 50 minutes this evening before hunkering back down to incubate again. I guess she knows what she's doing, but maybe a friendly call from Child Protective Services about leaving an egg to chill for almost an hour wouldn't be out of line... Actually, it wasn't super cold (maybe -2 or -3°C at that hour), and BNA says "Eggs withstood female absence of 20 min at –25°C when female joined mate hooting at a neighboring male..." Guess even the eggs have to be able to take some cold when the species nests this early- builds character, I'll bet.