Friday, October 8, 2010

Thursday 8 October

The chicks experienced their first 'proper' rainfall this afternoon. Pot Plant Owl left them to regurgitate a pellet on the garage roof. The rain started falling and I watched as the chicks huddled together in the nest. Pot Plant Owl didn't return until later in the evening to feed them.

For those watching on the webcam, you will hear the chicks make a hissing-type sound in the early evenings. This is their usual sound when they are begging for food. The hissing sound is usually accompanied by head-bopping and eagerly looking around for the next meal.

From this age right up until after the chicks fledge and leave us, we don't hear them hoot like their parents. Any hooting you hear on the webcam at night will be the parents. The male (Pappa) normally makes a hoot-hoot sound. Pot Plant Owl replies with two short hoots hoots followed by one long one - hoothoot-hoot. I'm not an ornithologist so forgive my explanation but you will hear the difference if you listen on the webcam.

As you will see, the chicks are growing by the day -in fact, now they almost double in size daily.

3 comments:

  1. i have a question, can you tell us something about the place where the chicks are. how big or high it is. we really are wondering about it :D thanks!

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  2. Hello Allan en Trace

    Nice to see the Owls again.
    I had looked a few times, but the previous link did not work, so I missed a lot ;-(
    I'll definitely check back later.

    best regards Fleur

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  3. Hello Alan and Trace,

    your description of the hootingsound by the adults is perfect! Yesterday they were hooting at each other for quite a long time, it was like music. The group of dutch people who observed the European Eagle-owl for about 4 months on beleefdelente.nl and watch the PotplantOwls now, can see (and hear) that the African and European Eagle-owls act the same in several ways, but also have differences in behavior. It's very interesting to compare both species.
    Can you tell us something about the habitat of the owls? How big is the territory, are there more owls around, is it wooded, are there hills or is it flat, do they catch their prey in or outside town or maybe there is a park nearby?
    Lot's of questions, i know.. I hope that you'll find some time for answers.
    Thank you for giving us the opportunity to watch this nice birds and their kids!

    Best regards Rita (Netherlands)

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