Lovely s'caps of the wings, Bev!

5:03 pm

Mom up for a bit of a stretch. Looks to me as if the smaller one is watching Mom, while the bigger one is checking to see if food is coming!



Mom flew off right after the s'cap; both chicks are up and looking around (though I don't know how much they can actually see yet).


Big stretch!

Thanks Judy...

Judy.,Great shots of both of them.. love the big stretch .. looks like the one is giving the other a little squeeze..

5:19pm
Both are resting close to one another in the nest...

5:20pm
Umbrella time.. i am not sure what the owners are doing.. they weren't there long...maybe watering the plant..

5:21pm
Babies are content in the nest.. i am noticing their color changing some..

5:30pm
One owlet is up in the nest... Can really see the color changes now.. wonder if she is waiting for supper...


Will be in and out...
eta
5:36pm
Mom Owl is back.. no food yet .

5:37pm 5:38pm
Mom is looking around.. doing some preening



5:42pm
Mom continues to preen and takes a sec to to look around..

5:56pm
Mom is in the nest shielding the chicks..
.

I never saw Mom making jerky body movements or coughing when i was watching.

Will check in later...

I'm back now! Thanks for helping out Bev and JudyB! Great caps. Love the wing strech!
I never heard Mom coughing so I was taken by surprise reading Tracy's blog. Sure hope she is okay. From my observations first thing this morning she appeared to be doing alright and booding her chicks as normal!


6:00pm Mom is in the nest with chicks.

6:06pm- Mom has left the nest now and the two little chicks are cuddled up to each other. Night is setting in as the night cam just switched on.

You are welcome Jean.. it was my pleasure..

6:29pm
I just noticed another wing stretch and a little wing flapping..

I now know what Tracy was doing with the umbrella before Bev! Here's the latest post on her blog and it tells the question we all had!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011
PM Tues 18 Oct
I don't know about you, but when I am feeling stressed, something gives physically. I get a sniffly nose, my back aches, my shoulders tense up - my body just doesn't feel 100%.

Perhaps that's how Pot Plant Owl feels with her unhatched egg - 'Shelly'. Ive watched her over the past few days. When I see her, she rolls her egg between her legs, and just stares down at it for the longest time. Maybe she's willing it to open. Maybe she's asking what may have happened. Maybe she's just staring at an egg.

PPO hasn't been 100% today and although the owl expert could see nothing visibly wrong, she advised us to watch PPO closely. That, we can do.

And the only thing we can do to help PPO with any 'stress' or 'confusion' she may be feeling, is to remove Shelly - the unhatched egg. So that is what I did, and good thing I did it now. The egg STINKS already and if it had broken in the pot, I think we'd all have had to abandon ship (house) and flee.

Pot Plant Owl flew to the balcony railing, and I crouched under the umbrella for a few minutes talking to her. She was on edge, alarmed, and ready to attack.

But here's the funny thing. As soon as my hand slipt between our sleeping beauties (the two chicks) and lifted the egg up, Pot Plant Owl seemed to visibly relax a little. By the time I had backed up to the door, PPO's feathers were unruffled and she was looking towards her pole.

I think it may soon be a case of "Out of sight, out of mind".

I had noticed the egg was missing since I was back and thought maybe it was pushed up against the front side of the planter out of sight to us. It will be interesting to see how PPO Mom reacts now. Maybe she was upset about the egg not hatching! Then again, a mom has the instinct to know when a newly "born creature" is not well and most likely not live. Raising dogs, I have seen Moms push the weak aside as they know they are going to die. We have seen that with our ospreys, eagles and other wildlife as well. Guess we just need to watch PPO Mom closely and if we see anything out of the ordinary, let Tracy or Allan know!

I hadn't looked in for a while - thanks for all the s'caps and for posting Tracy's report, Bev and Jean!

I wonder if this is the first time that she's had an egg that didn't hatch - may need to check the notes on the website.