Nature Done Wright

  Power was restored to our home in Allendale just before midnight last night.

    We were without electricity for more than 32 hours.  My wife Patty and I missed the phone and the lights and the TV and the computer, but we missed viewing the Ace family via the screech cam most of all.

     The first thing we did when the power came back up was to race to the basement, plug in all the gear and activate the monitor.

   Bingo! We had sound and video immediately, and we could see Mrs. Ace the screch owl huddling her brood as if nothing had happened. Which, for them, is absolutely right.

   It took about 20 minutes for Mrs. Ace to hop on her perch at the opening again, so we could do a head count.

   All four owlets are OK, and getting bigger and grayer. It must have been a long day, because they were quite subdued. (See photo at top. Yes, that’s the four owlets huddled in a clump, and a new fluffy carcass on the upper left.)

    This morning when I activated the monitor, Mrs. Ace had the Fab Four tucked under her wing again.

    As I looked out the window this morning, I saw a female Baltimore oriole and the hummingbird.

    Life is returning to normal, though the Franklin Turnpike outside my home is still closed as of 11:30 a.m. Friday.

   In the videos below, Mrs. Ace with her occasionally unruly brood:

Download MVI_0547a.avi (12 seconds)

Download MVI_0552a.avi (12 seconds)

   Note: Both these videos are a little longer than I would have liked — but the shorter ones that I took just lacked much movement.  I’ll try to cut those times down in the future for easier download. Sorry.