Momma's Roosting Today!

Today was the first day of the spring that the female spent the entire day in the nest box!  Since my last post, night activity has been increasing steadily.  From February 19 through last night, nightly visits by both owls were recorded peaking on Thursday night with 8 visits for a total of more than 1.5 hours in the box.  On Saturday morning, Papa delivered a mouse and left it in the box.  Rather than eating it there, Momma picked it up and took it outside.

Last year, the first day she spent a day in the box was 3/5 and she did not start spending every day until 3/16 with the first egg laid on March 20.  I am setting up the computers for live feed so keep checking back here for the announcement!

Here are a couple of photos from the last few days:

And finally today:

Courtship

Courtship behavior is becoming almost nightly although it does not always occur in the next box.  Here are videos from the past week inside the box.  Note that neither owl is doing any daytime roosting in the box and has not since at least the end of November; at the same time, the squirrel has spent only 1 night in it.

Very early in the evening of February 8, I heard calling in the yard and recorded this in the box:

January at the Nest Box

Slowly but steadily, nesting season is approaching.  I have been recording the nest box every night (and some days).  At least one owl entered the box during the nights of 12/4, 12/30, 1/7, 1/9 (2 owls on video below), 1/19 (1 owl calling on video below), and 1/29.  In addition, I have caught a couple of other visitors and here are some still shots.  The one that is hard to identify is a Carolina Wren:

Here are two videos, first of two owls from January 9th:

The second is from January 19th: