Hey guys! I’ve been working on the March 22, 2024 footage and the video is currently about 3 minutes long. I thought I’d break this post up into part 1 & 2, but then I realized that the second part of the footage after Mama Owl flies away is just of the Owlets hanging out… so from about 6:30-7:15pm it’s not that interesting… so scratch that idea. We’ll just jump to what happened around 7:18pm and make this one post…

But before we talk about that I’ll show you some of the photos I took while waiting that ~45 min for something to happen…

Pretty… and colorful! Ok… back to the owls…

At the start of this video, the Owlets are really interested in a feather that is flapping in the wind, and one of the Owlets attacks it… it’s so cute. It reminds me of a cat with a toy. Then the Owlets go to their new hidey-hole on the outside of the cave (which I’ve sped up to 1.5 times). One of the Owlets then does an impressive jump and wing flap, I created an instant replay of that. Next, Mama Owl flies away and the Owlets practice a little wing flapping and then just hang out for like 45 minutes before I lost light.

They are getting so big and they are really starting to look like they are getting some of those flight feathers in. They are about 5 weeks old here…

EDIT:(25-04-22) I took down the video to save space.

Around 7:18 pm, I started to pack up my gear, and then we heard hooting… we looked around hoping to see the parents… eventually we saw a bird in flight, and then they landed on top of a tree!! I was able capture this on my other camera… Is it the male or the female? I don’t know… but they hooted and flew away and it felt like a great way to end Birbuary.

And the next day (March 23, 2024), the cave was empty…

I really thought Birbuary was over, and it made sense… it was about the same time as last year when they left the cave…

But then…

We had a really cold and windy night (March 24, 2024)… and guess what?! One of the owlets returned to the cave!!!

And so… Birbuary continues…

Until next time…

~nic