Adventures With Mel & Syd: Welcome Egg 4

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

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Welcome Egg 4

With the morning sun shinning in the nest box, giving Sydney the glow of impending egg laying.
It didn't happen!
Viewers and chatters waited the day and then later the night, with many expecting at any minute the egg would come.. One of the running jokes was that Sydney would lay egg four the minute "they" the chatter left the room. Many chatters would leave only to return hours later to see that number four still hadn't arrived.

False alarm

Yet another false alarm

Kanga showed us all another view from a new camera set up. If you look to the right, you can see the famous boom cam pole across from the ladder. The koi pond can also be seen on the right.

When Mel first arrived last night, he was empty taloned (no food), him and Sydney sheared a moment or two preening eachother. He seemed to be very curious to see if Sydney laid another egg.
And then...

At 10:14pm , Mel brought in Sydney's first treat of the night
In this pose of Sydney, she was right in the middle of labor with her fourth egg.