Nature Done Wright

  I like to speak to classes of students about the screech owls, the screech cam and my blog for several reasons — including trying to answer the questions that these sharp young people come up with.

   I spoke to 120 third-graders at the Tisdale  Elementary School in Ramsey yesterday, and they arrived prepared. After I gave a slide show and played some of those short screech-cam videos for them, I tried to field their questions.

   They had dozens of them, and (nearly) all of them on target.

   The one question that I particularly liked, and one I hadn’t really thought about, was: What do I like best about the owls and the screech cam?

   Off the top of my head, I said that I liked activating the monitor and never knowing quite what to expect. The owls always were full of surprises.

    After the talk, I stopped by the house to get my briefcase, and I noticed an adult screech owl sitting in the opening. And that the owl was being badgered by a grackle or two.

    For some reason, I thought it didn’t quite look like Mrs. Ace. I activated the monitor, the picture came up, and — voila! — two adult owls were in the box.

   I had seen Mr. Ace and Mrs. Ace in the box together only once before, in early April, when there was one egg in the box.

   As far I know, yesterday was the first time that the entire Ace family of six was in the box together.

    But I don’t monitor the box anywhere close to 24 hours a day, so it may happen more often than I think.

   In the following video, you can see Mr. and Mrs. Ace and two of the Fab Four.

   Mr. Ace is in the opening (he’s the smaller of the two). and Mrs. Ace is with the nestlings.

   You should be able to hear one of the owlets calling, and then Mrs. Ace making a defensive sound — a clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack.

   My guess is that Mr. Ace flew back to protect the nest. Who knows?

   Good parents, that pair — Mr. and Mrs. Ace.

Download MVI_0659a.avi