Category: 2017

  • 2017: Interesting Minute

    2017: Interesting Minute

    2017 Flashback: Here’s Henrietta, who at this point was sitting on two eggs. I just want to point out that just 11 months earlier either this owl or her mate had plowed into me at max speed for the unforgivable sin of being outside at night near their nest. But here we are, sitting on…

  • Ready for her closeup

    Ready for her closeup

    2017 Flashback: this short clip shows Henrietta returning from a break from incubating her eggs. This is why I’m always saying I wish I could give them a book or a television or something. It has to be EXTREMELY boring and a little claustrophobic in there, even though this nest hole is apparently A+ property…

  • Seeing what we want to see… Or not

    Seeing what we want to see… Or not

    I’ve been thinking a lot about Henrietta’s Favorite Shady Spot, where I could reliably find at least one owl for most of the summer of 2016. More specifically, I’ve been thinking about the fact that I haven’t found owls there this year. It clearly isn’t just a preferred daytime sitting spot. In retrospect, I think…

  • Wet bird not on a wire (video)

    Wet bird not on a wire (video)

    After it’s been raining for two straight days, you just want to climb to the very highest branch and do some preening in what meager sun is available. It isn’t that much to ask, is it? My personal thanks to the cardinals, who notified me that Henrietta was lurking way up in the top of…

  • Evening check-in (video)

    Evening check-in (video)

    One of the things I was hoping to accomplish with the OwlCam in 2017 was a final determination of which owl it is who constantly shortens his/her hoot. I’ve been guessing it’s Ecks for years for… reasons I can’t quite remember now. I think because I tend to hear the abbreviated gurgle-hoot from outside the…

  • A visit or two (video)

    A visit or two (video)

    I’d like to brag that I’m so good at owl-tracking now that I immediately pick up on subtle environmental cues and know when one of my birds is around. But alas, the truth is that I’m obsessed, and I look for them constantly, and sometimes I get a lucky break. Which has happened twice this week,…

  • Come back, Henrietta! (video)

    Come back, Henrietta! (video)

    …we cleaned it all up for you!

  • Cannot. Just cannot. (video)

    Cannot. Just cannot. (video)

    LITERALLY losing my mind. And I don’t use that word casually.

  • And then there were none.

    And then there were none.

    I know nature is cruel. I know this may have happened before and we just didn’t know, because we didn’t have a camera. I even know they could *possibly* work in a second clutch yet this year. But… I’m so very sad.