The third burrow with owlets the same morning was found on Forrester Road between Bannister and Walker. There was a cement slab and a burrow right next to it. The owlet hid in the hole and then came out to eat insects brought by a parent to it. Forrester is a paved road that gets quite a bit of traffic and the owls seemed to be dormant and wait for a car, truck or tractor to come by and then scamper to feed and move about while that commotion was going on, to keep me distracted, then go dormant again. I saw a parent feed another parent an insect, which it ate, I saw a parent feed another parent which it then gave to the owlet and I saw a parent directly feed the owlet. Both parents seemed to be feeding the owlet, taking turns staying in the burrow with the owlet while the other parent hunted for insects.
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Here a parent feeds the owlet an insect. |
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Here a parent feeds another parent an insect. |
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The other parent descends into the burrow, presumably to feed to the owlet. |
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Here a parent stands on the cement and the owlet's head pokes out of the burrow. |
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Parent hops off the cement and disappears into the burrow. |
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Then owlet emerges from the burrow with wings semi-flapping and heads to the other parent for an insect. |
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Parent, with an insect in its mouth, is just visible at the left-side of the photo. |
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Owlet grabs the insect and disappears into the burrow. |
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First, there is a parent to parent exchange of an insect. |
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The second parent heads to the burrow to feed the owlet. |
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The owlet emerges to take the insect. |
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The owlet has eaten the insect. |
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Parent and owlet stand for a moment. |
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Then parent hops into the burrow and disappears. |
It is fun to watch the parents and the owlets interact and I was amazed at how often and how much this owlet got fed.
I wonder how many insects per day an owlet needs. Seems like they'd need to be eating all day.
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