Browvard Community Charter School 3rd graders Go Stingray!!!!!

The following is a transcript of the live "Question & Answer" session we had with one of the schools this nesting season.  Enjoy!!

4.19.12 School session

Cecilia asks:  How big is the owl box and Is this the first time it is being used?  

The Barn Owl nest box  is 30" long, 18" high, 16" wide  and is located about 16 feet above ground level. This is the 2^nd year that Mel & Syd have used this nest.

Mannaica asks:  Does it keep the babies safe from predators, or can something still get in?  

 Being so high in the sky it keeps the owlets safe from animals living on the ground and also being enclosed they are safe from most predators.

Michelle asks:  Are the babies going to still live in the box after they grow up, or do they have to find another box? 

Mel & Syd will not allow them back to the nest after they lay the next clutch of eggs.  In some cases like we have seen here “Dinky” the youngest one from last years off spring keeps coming to visit but Mel & Syd don’t allow him to get to close or comfortable with the nest.

                                                                                                                           

Cecilia asks:  How can we tell the difference between Mel and Sydney?

First by size, the females in bird of prey species is always larger than the males.  Then we also look at their colors, Mel is much more whiter on his chest and face and Syd has more spots and has a rusty color.  We can also tell by behavior with owls since only the female incubates the eggs and cares for the young.

Zhane asks:  How many babies can they have? 

They lay eggs according to how plentiful the prey is in the area so if there are a lot of rodents then they will lay a lot of eggs, it can be from 4 -12 eggs but it depends a lot on the environment around them, nature seems to know what the right number is.

 Tamiyah asks:  How much does a month old owlet weigh and How much does an adult owl weigh? 

A month old owlet weights less then half a pound and in adult owls the males weigh about 15.oz and the female weights about 20 ounces so that is just a little over a pound.

Tyler asks:  How long is an adult Barn Owl’s wing compared to an Adult Bald Eagle’s wing?   

An owls wing span is approximately 40 plus inches which is about 3 feet, it depends on the size and sex of the owl.  A Bald Eagles wing span is 72-96 inches which is equivalent to 6-8 ft.

Mrs. Forshey comments & asks:  About two weeks ago, we saw an owlet with a mouse in its beak, shaking it up and down. It looked so funny like it was dancing! I had told the students that this was because the baby didn’t know how to use its talons to hold the food down and tear it. I have since learned that I was wrong about how owls eat.  Would you please give a much better answer than mine about how owls eat and what the owlet was trying to do by bouncing its head up and down?  What you saw was the owlet first having to learn to position the prey “head first” because that is the way it has to be in order to go down their throat with out the tail or feet creating a problem bending the wrong way.  The action the owlets make by bouncing their heads up and down is contracting the muscles in its jaw and throat pulling the food down into it’s digestive system.  If you have ever seen a snake eat it is pretty similar in the contraction movements made.

Carynna asks:  I saw a hole in their mouth. How can they live with that?   

What you are seeing is the breathing hole in their tongue, this is the air way they use when they are eating and moving food down their throat, with this air hole in their tongue they can swallow whole prey and not choke or pass out from lack of oxygen.

Tapanga asks:  What other things do they eat? Do they eat any human food?  Their diet consists of only meat so they eat rodents like rats, mice, gophers and rabbits, they can’t digest vegetables at all so they are strictly “carnivores” which means meat eaters.

 Raven asks:  We know that an eagle egg is about the size of a tennis ball and a humming bird egg is a small as a Tic Tac mint. How does an owl egg compare in size?  

 A Barn Owl egg is approximately the same size as a golf ball or a ping pong ball.

Carynna asks:  Why do they look so pink when they hatch?

When they hatch they have hardly any feathers at all they just have small “downy” feathers that will grow so you are actually seeing their pink skin.

Sean asks:  How much do the babies have to eat per day? What about for an adult?  The amount they need to eat is based on how old they are, very young owlets only need about half a mouse per day were the older ones are ok with just a couple rodents per day.  An adult owl can survive on just one gopher or rat per day.  A lot depends on how much energy they are expending, the more active they are the more food they need.

Evana asks:  Will Mel and Sydney stay together, like eagles do?

Yes, all most all birds will remain together their entire lives once they bond and become mates.  This bond is what makes them such great parents.

Anthony asks:  We can’t wait to see the owlets fly! When do you think they will fly for the first time?    

The young “fledge” when they are all most 2 months old, 52-56 days from the hatching date.

Willy asks:  Do they keep growing after the first year?  By the time they fledge from the nest they are about full grown and will not get any bigger but they will molt their feathers each year and by the second year their adult colors come in and you can tell if they are male or female.

Jia Wei asks:  How old will an owl be when it gets to be an adult and starts looking for a partner and have babies?  

 They will be considered adults at 2 years of age and by then have mastered the skills of hunting and surviving in the wild.  At this time they find their own territory if they are a male and will then make calls to attract a female to nest with.

Zhane asks:  Do owls hibernate? 

No, owls do not hibernate, they have to stay active and hunt all year because of their body size and they don’t accumulate a lot of fat to live off of like bears.

Jovan asks:  Are owls and eagles friends? 

No, they are in fact enemies but because Eagles are day time predators and owls are night time hunters they don’t come into much contact with each other.

Evana asks:  Do owls have ancestors?  

 Yes they do!  The earliest “Birds of Prey” were called “Velociraptors” which means "swift seizer”, this is where the word “Raptors” comes from which describes birds with large talons that hunt from the sky.  Do you remember seeing the movie “Jurasic Park” and the Velociaptors in it??  They kept them in a special facility because they were the most vicious and made the comment that they were really smart and "thinkers".

Sharice asks:  Where do the owls “poop”? 

 We have seen the “poop-shoots” from the eaglets, but not from the owlets.  The owlets poop just like the Eagles but since they are in an enclosed nest they do not move back wards to aim over the side but as they get older they do move back away from the main living area of the nest.

Mrs. Forshey asks:  Oh, so that’s why the bottom of their barn house looks pretty dirty. What else is in all that stuff?  Their nest is lined with the ‘pellets” that they cast up, “casting” is the term used to describe their regurgitating undigested fur and bones from their food.  This is pulled apart by the mother owl to make a nice soft bedding for them.

Zalayna asks:  Do they ever clean it out?   

The owls don’t purposely clean it out but as they get older the nesting material starts to pile up and does start getting kicked out of the nest. The young owlets also use the pellets to learn how to use their feet and toes to “talon” things and build up strength.

You also asked if owls come back to the same place to have babies or do they look for a newer (cleaner) place?  They come back to the same nest every time since it is their territory and home.  The entire nest is a mini ecosystem that is alive (yes complete with bugs) and is interdependent on each thing in there for survival.

Kayleen asks:  Sometimes the area around the owlets face seems to reflect light (glow). Is that sometime just seen because of the camera, or do these owls have special feathers that reflect light around the face?  

That is a really good observation and question, the effect you are seeing is the feathers as they reflect the light which is what causes the changing colors making it appear at times to glow.  Bird feathers are made up of many tiny interlocking "strands" that each have even smaller parts to them.  Due to their different structure, feathers can have an appearance similar to that of a glass prism breaking light into different colors - this is called refraction. Colors that are formed through refraction of light in this way are brighter and more metallic or even shiny looking than those that are coloured by pigments. All the tiny face feathers on the owlets can refract light in the same way so it looks like a shiny reflection.

Mrs. Forshey comments & asks:  In Florida, we have Burrowing Owls, one of the smallest owls. They look very different from the Barn Owls. How many different kinds of owls are there? Can you name a few and we will research them to see how they look.  This is a difficult question because species come and go, but because of DNA studies there is approx. over 150 species but scientists argue about this a lot.  If you look at a “Burrowing Owl’s” legs you can see how much more leg there is then in other owls and that is because they use them to dig in the ground to make their nests.  Here in Florida besides the Barn Owl we also have the Great Horn Owl, the Barred Owl and the littlest one of all the Eastern Screech Owl.  Also native to North America we have the tiniest of all called “Elf Owls” and the biggest of all the Great Grey owl.  There are all different kinds of owls and each one is designed to live in their specific habitat.

The whole class asks:  Is there anything else you think we should know about Mel and Sydney that we didn’t ask?  I think you have asked a lot of really good questions but here is some more info for you: 

Are owls color blind?

 No, they can see color, especially “red” the color of blood and meat, they are nocturnal and have a poorer color vision then their day time counter parts like hawks and eagles.

 

How does Syd communicate with the babies?

She made a low trilling sound to them while still in the egg, then to call them to eat, she also makes some chirping sounds to talk to them. They learned the sound of her voice while still in the egg and now after sun down when you watch them they get very excited way before we even see a parent coming in with food, this is because they have learned the voice of Mel also and can hear them calling as they come with food.

 How old can an owl live to be?

The oldest record for a Barn Owl is in Holland 17 yrs, 10 months, in the US was 11 yrs 6 months but because of all the dangers in the wild it isn’t normal to live that long so those were lucky owls.

 Do owls have eyelids?  

 Yes they do, in fact they have a 3 eye lids, 2 just like ours then one called a “Nictating Membrane” which is just like a reptiles clear transparent eye lid which comes down over the eye to protect it from injury when they are catching prey.

Do they have neck vertebrae?  

 Yes they do and this is what makes them so unique!  They have twice as many as we do, a total of 14 vertebrae which allows them to turn their neck around all most all the way, but they have to bring it back, they can’t  spin it around.

2012, A Really Rough Year for Barn Owlets

The events of this week have left us all with a heavy heart and soul. We gather together every day to peek into the private world of Mel & Syd and after the tremendous success of last year we have all been taken from the safe and secure adventure into the real world of what wild life is really about.

My first love is wild life and the world they live in but then my passion is education and sharing what I know with others so that they can better understand the "Circle of Life" and how "Mother Nature" works.

Early on I knew there was a problem just by seeing the number of rodents decrease from last years intakes [making reference to all the California Owl Boxes]. Noticing that there was a decline in rodents coming into the nest I knew there was going to be a problem after the owlets hatched in keeping them fed. Syd totally shocked me when she started leaving the nest while the owlets were at such an early age, this is not normal for a mother to do with such young babies and we all knew it. But I also knew that Syd knew they needed food, but what puzzled me is that no one saw her coming back in with food every time she left.

What happened Monday night was truly upsetting to me and I had only seen this before in nestlings that were starving. For baby owlets to behave in the manner they did after Mel dropped off that mouse was confirmation of my fears that they were not getting enough to eat. For what seemed like over an hour Maggie continued to try to eat that beat up mouse and in her attempts to get it down her movements were triggering all the owlets food reactions which lead to a serious slap down beat around food fight. This is were I feel that both Alice and Roo were injured in the trample for food. Their being so small compared to Maggie and Boomer left them handicapped to the bigger 2's fight over the rodent.

Last night really has me wondering what is going on with Syd. I have heard the "rumors" that are going around that this isn't Syd. That has to stop!!!! She was positively identified by dandi and yvonne - painstakingly going through photos and matching the "heart" shape markings on her wing which I agree with. Those spots on owls are just like our finger prints, that is their identity and no 2 owls would be marked the same. This IS Syd but Syds behavior isn't what we are use to. For her to take off last night and Mel to have delivered a mouse, rabbit and gopher and her not to come back and shred to feed is not normal at this age. Something is going on here that we don't know or have a clue what is happening so I can't enlighten you at all about this. All I can do is give you my professional opinion on what I do know and that is there is a problem here. There is more than we can see happening in the nests this year and that it may not be over yet. There has been loss in all most all the Barn Owl nests this year and in a couple the eggs haven't hatched yet so there will be more information and lessons to learn.

After a couple of successful years like we have seen of the Barn Owls raising so many clutches in the Southern California area I can only wonder how many are out there hunting the territory. Mel and Syd stayed in their territory year round, they never left, this has been confirmed to me by kanga telling me he could see and hear them calling each other just about every day. We also know that most likely "Dinky is still hanging around there by the UFO. I have watched this very closely and that is not an intruding owl, that is an off spring because there had been no direct attack upon it until after the owlets hatched. The UFO is way to comfortable with the nest, playground and area to be an intruder and the UFO has made no threat to the nest itself. Taking into consideration that they fledged 6 owlets last year plus themselves that is a total of 8 owls in that area. Count the numbers from Molly/McGee and the other nests that are around that area and that is a lot of owls for a residential area of the country.

Last year I was also studying Owliver/Owlivia when they kept coming back into the nest during the really hot summer days which made no sense to sit in an oven on a hot summer day panting. After chatting with the nest owner while this happened one day I asked him to go outside and tell me what he saw. When he came back he told me hawks were circling the area which then made perfect sense that they were scared and hiding in the nest. Most likely they were not O&O but off spring which still viewed the nest as safety and secure. Older experienced adults know how to hide in the tree and look like they are part of it. It is only by close observation that many things can be answered, but that makes it hard when your watching a camera on a screen thousand of miles away.

Kanga has given us such a treat with the cams on the playground that gives us a much better view into their little world and I am so great full for the opportunity to bird watch from the comfort of my home. But this is just a small window we get to look into that only shows a very small part of their life and what it takes to survive in the wild.