five anxious minutes

After much calling back and forth with the papa owl this evening,

the mama owl suddenly stood up, stretched her wings,

and took off.

I hoped very hard that the papa owl was nearby,

perched just out of camera range, perhaps in the nest tree.

Because it's hard not to see vulnerability here:

Within five minutes...

swoop!

Mama was back.

Checking the babies, settling down to keep them warm.

And beginning another night of
watching, watching, watching

with those enormous eyes.

Whew!

Now I can knit.

~~~~~

bird news

Just two bits of information to share, both of which came to me (appropriately, now that I think of it) as twitter "tweets."

First: one of the Great Horned Owls has hatched! Here's an owlcam image of mama and the youngster, posted by @SavannahOwls earlier today.

please left-click to embiggen!

We're looking down at the top of Mama's head, and she is looking down at the baby, whose little round white fuzzy head is peeking out right above Mama's feathered toes. You can even make out the baby's beak with the egg tooth - pretty sweet!

~~~

Second (and you are going to love this): the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been building an online Feather Atlas for North American birds.

(screenshot from USFWS Feather Atlas)

This makes so much sense, I can hardly believe it didn't already exist! Maybe something similar is already available in other countries? Perhaps in Britain, where birdwatching (or "twitching") seems to have a long history as a national past-time?

(Screenshot from Atlas)

As someone who often picks up a feather and thinks, "Ooh, it's from a hawk! Or...an owl! Or...a duck?" I think this online atlas with it's user-friendly identification tools may be very useful!

~~~~~