Monday, March 5, 2012

Owls Preparing to Nest

A depression in my nest box's bedding material has suggested for several days that a female screech owl is planning on nesting there. Last night, I finally saw one of her visits, when (sure enough) her primary concern was moving the bedding material around to create a depression for the eggs that are on their way. This is normal pre-nesting behavior for a female screech owl, so it's a very good sign that my Owl Cam' will return this year.

Therefore, yesterday afternoon I brought the box down and gave it a thorough cleaning, and a new floor covering beneath the usual bedding material. The new floor covering is composed of unjoined, loose fitting segments of wood that are positioned end-grain-up. It should provide better thermal insulation (more like a cavity in a tree), while wicking away moisture in the bedding material (again, like a cavity in a tree, where the dead, interior wood of the tree is potentially a large moisture sink), providing a barrier to insects like last year's ants, and allowing the box to drain if a meaningful quantity of rain should ever find its way into the box (which has never happened). The latter two requirements border on being contradictory: providing good drainage means allowing unobstructed access to the large drain holes in the box's floor while keeping insects out means, in part, obstructing access to those holes. Realistically, it probably won't be perfect at either, but I think it'll be an improvement over my previous approaches to the problem.

Last night I observed both the male and the female in the box at various times. The male arrived first, examined the cleaned-up interior briefly, then climbed into the entry hole and called for his mate with great vigor. After 5-10 minutes of that, he left. Perhaps his mate had arrived in the area, or maybe he needed a stiff drink after all that calling. Several hours later, his mate appeared in the box, gave it a careful looking-over from the safety of the entryway, and then entered and proceeded to give the bedding material a thorough kicking about, until she had created a shallow depression that met her specifications.

In my experience, that behavior means that nesting could begin at any time.

10 comments:

  1. oh, good. oh, yeah.
    thanks, Chris.
    go to it, little owls!

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  2. hat creek, ca1:27 AM CST

    Hooray! Your owl cam is super. I hope it all goes smoothly for both the owls and yourself. Thank you Chris.

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  3. YAY!!! I've been looking forward to this post!

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  4. Super, I've been watching impatiently for your owls. Thanks Chris!

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  5. Steve in SC8:43 AM CST

    Count me among those who have been awaiting the owl cam's return. I'll have to check the two boxes we have up but no cams there - just boxes for owl/fowl perusal but built to owl box specs.

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  6. will the iphone owlapp work this year?

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  7. Dale asked about the iPhone app. As it happens, about a week ago I talked to my old friend Chris Cooley who wrote the app and asked him whether he’d have the time to do whatever needs to be done to make it available again this year. His answer: Yes.

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  8. Anonymous9:07 AM CST

    so excited to see the owls once again.

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  9. merci to Chris and Chris, in either order.

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  10. hat creek, ca11:58 PM CDT

    any action?

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