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

Egg Develpment and Embryo Growth Chart inside the egg

As the mating season draws near, female owls begin acting as if they are brooding even before there are eggs. After an egg is fertilized (usually within a day or 2), it goes through several stages of development. The developing egg, which is known as the yolk, initially picks up several coatings of albumen (egg white). It then gets two coatings of a material that forms the familiar (calcareous shell) hard shell. As soon as the first egg forms a shell, another egg begins to develop. The first egg may be ready to lay as early as one day after copulation.

Initially, eggs are laid individually every 1 to 2 days. During the incubation process, female owls rarely leave the nest except to defecate and get water. To help with incubation, female owls have a sparsely feathered brood patch on their bellies that has a higher percentage of blood vessels than other parts of the skin. Blood flow through these vessels creates a good source of heat (in the range 101-103)for the eggs.

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