SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Not enough nesting on the floor?
Wont the egg crack?
They need padding on the floor!


Not to worry, as you can see from this picture from Mel and Sydney's first clutch the floor looked about the same as it does now.
Barn Owls do not "build" a nest but just before egg laying the female usually makes a shallow scrape in the previous years' nest debris and/or breaks up a few recent pellets creating a soft layer for egg laying.
Many owls lay their eggs on the ground or bare floors.
Barn Owls in Africa use the giant stick structures made by Hammerkops (a stork like bird) occasionally nesting communally.