Towheeblog

UPDATE:  With four young, a mate and  himself the male now needs to catch up to 24 [6 owls, 4 meals/day] small mammals per day!  That is likely to mean some hunting even mid-day depending on the local supply of voles, moles, shrews, mice, chipmunks.  Let’s hope this boy is up to the task and that there is plenty of small critters running around.

The female Great Gray Owl on the nestcam has FOUR fledglings.  At 10:59 AM Pacific Time today she was feeding them, tearing off bits of mammal meat from the prey in the nest and feeding each one in turn.  She was facing the front of the next cavity so each time she lifted up to feed an owlet the group was visible.  The youngest is still quite small and will need good fortune to make it against three larger competitors, but prey levels are good this spring, they may all survive.

Here’s the nestcam URL: https://explore.org/live-cams/player/great-gray-owl-nest