May
2009
Long-eared owl babies get first flying lessons
May 14th, 2009 at 07:17 pm by Shari Thomas in Around the FarmLast evening was great fun for us. We got to watch “daddy owl” give flying lessons to two little ones. They’re about 5 weeks old now, and it’s time to go to school.
Baby Long-eared Owl
Over the next 3 to 4 weeks, they’ll hone their flying skills and learn to hunt. We’ve got plenty of small rodents around, so hunting will be more a function of learning to fly, dive, and kill the prey.
There’s at least one more baby still in the nest.
The first little guy we saw plopped down in the front yard. He did one of those really ugly “chin landings” and then lurched around the yard a bit. I would imagine the grass felt pretty funny on his feet. Pretty soon, he sought refuge on the back tire of our truck, before again trying out his wings.
He flew to our turnaround, and then to the top of the truck before really becoming brave and heading for the Chinese Elm trees. Daddy was never very far away.
At one point, Bev got a little close and he actually scolded her. She really felt bad as all she was doing was walking down our front walk. Guess she got in the way of his line of sight.
Cindy and I stayed outside until nearly dark, watching the little baby climb to the top of the tree. With Daddy’s encouragement, it even flew from tree to tree.
Buy me a beer and I'll write more posts more often.
