Mom and Dad will care for them for weeks as they grow – they will grow very rapidly and Mom will be feeding them bits of meat for quite a while until they can begin to feed themselves.

Dad’s alive and well, and has been bringing her food several times a day. Last evening 1/31 just before midnight we see both on the nest. Take a look at the posting at that time for a video of the two together.

Kam, we’re pretty sure it doesn’t make any sounds that she detects. If she’s not looking at it when it zooms or pans, she doesn’t turn around to look at it. When she does look at it, she can see the mechanism, and if it’s moving as she looks at it she would see that, just like we would in the same situation. It’s also possible that in high winds there might be a creak from the mounting. But all in all we don’t think she hears anything from the camera that disturbs her.

I think that Dot’s right that there might be some things about the camera that could attract the owl’s attention. However, we’ve got a lot of archived video of the transition from daylight to infrared illumination, and she doesn’t seem to every notice it if she’s not looking at the equipment. So she doesn’t see the infrared and the apparently that doesn’t make a noise that she reacts to. When the camera pans and zooms, she also doesn’t react to it if she’s not already looking at it, so it must be very quiet. Of course she can see the equipment, and as Dot says, frequently stares directly at it or near it. We’re not sure it it’s because something catches her attention, or if she just continues to wonder where that thing came from! We do know that if it’s panning she would be able to see that..

Although I haven’t been nearby when the camera was operating, I suspect there is a soft noise emitted by the camera at the very least when it switches from day to night viewing and perhaps when it’s zooming or panning. I’ve also noticed the owl staring intently right into the camera at such times.

So glad to know he’s around!