Last year, EcoSolutions installed an Owl Cam on a Spotted Eagle Owl (Bubo africanus) box in Linden and 1000's of viewers watched the 3 owlets grow! The adult owls are back in the garden daily and were investigating the box on Monday night, 12th June. We are all keen to watch the beautiful process again.
UPDATE: The female owl laid her 1st egg on Saturday, 11th September 2021 and the second egg was laid on Wednesday, 15th September 2021. Female owls start incubating their clutch after laying the second egg. The eggs are incubated for 30 - 32 days.
2nd UPDATE: The owlets hatched on the 13th and 14th October 2021. Keep an eye on the box for little white balls of fluff. The female owl is still tightly down and keeping the owlets warm. The male owl brings food throughout the night and the female owl will tear the prey item into small pieces to feed to her owlets. The female owl usually leaves the nest and returns to feed her owlets between 18h00 - 20h00.
3rd UPDATE: Exciting times are ahead! On Friday evening, 22nd October 2021 at 18h05, we placed an orphaned owlet into this owl box to be fostered by this owl family. There was no history on the owlet when it was handed into the Joburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital (JWVH) and the best chance of survival was to place him in a nest with owlets of similar age. The new owlet is about 5 days older than the 2 owlets. We have a very unique opportunity here to see exactly how the fostering goes.
UPDATE 4th November: The owlets are now 21 days old as the 3rd November 2021. They are healthy and thriving in the owl box. On November 4th 2021 our team ventured out to the residence located in Linden and successfully completed the ringing procedure with SAF-RINGS: Owlet 890132, Owlet 890133 and Owlet 890134. You can view this recorded event via our Facebook page here.
UPDATE 5th November: The foster owlet (the older of the 3) is now on the ground below the tree. The parent owls will still feed him when he solicits for food and they will definitely protect him.
UPDATE 7th November: The second owlet landed on the platform at 04h00 CAT and has been on the platform for the day.
UPDATE 16th November: Please note when the third owlet has fledged from the platform the YouTube livestream will end and a new camera livestream will be established shortly after. Gryff is on the ground and Huff is still on the platform. Thank you all for watching!
UPDATE 17th November: All three owlets (Gryff, Huff and Sly) are now on the ground. View all the footage on our YouTube channel!
Feel free to sign up to Disqus to comment and share pictures below.
