Owl Babies

Great Horned Owl Babies
Originally uploaded by Tut99 (Roger)

I love Bird Note on NPR and I always hear it just after I drop off the boys at school. Today was about the great horned owl - a couple and their babies.

transcript:
Compared to many birds, Great Horned Owls remain with their parents a long time. Robins, for example, are fending for themselves only six weeks after they hatch. The two owlets are now almost seven months old. They were born in early March, from eggs laid in late January. The mother incubated the eggs for a month, never leaving the nest. During that month, the male Great Horned Owl was the sole provider.

By April, both parents were hunting through the night. They airlifted in meal after meal to the rapidly growing young, everything from delectable ducks to smelly skunks. But for the last two weeks, the adults have not fed the young. The owlets have learned the skills they need to hunt on their own.

Today could be the final day the family group roosts together. For any night now, the young owls will strike out on their own.

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We had a book for Emery and then Wilbur called OWL BABIES about just this. And both boys loved that book and would have me read it 4 or 5 times each night. The story goes that the babies wake up and their mommy is not there. They think a lot and just when they are about to panic, she swoops into the nest and they flap and they dance and are overjoyed to see her. She asks what's all the fuss? You knew I'd come back!

Bird Note today reminded me of my little owlets and their favorite owlet book.