I've changed the Blog format to allow more photos, and have begun posting a small sampling of photos taken both from inside the owl box and from outside as well.

Out of the Box
Widget began showing more and more adult characteristics over the past few weeks. Plumage shifted from looking like a downy fuzzball to more characteristic spotted auburn hue. We noted that pouncing was occurring- what looked like mock hunting. Widget unfurled an amazingly large set of wings and would beat the air of the box, looking as though it was preparing for flight. 5 mights ago it left the box- briefly, then returned. Strangely, parents which seemed almost absentees, were immediately nearby and sounding off in loud racous tones. Same behavior the following night, and then - out of the box and no return. I am quite certain however that I heard widget sounding off last night in a nearby palm tree.

Separation anxiety
After months of daily observation and more than a little tending, Widget now looks like an adult owl.Beautiful feathers, large luminous eyes, and the steady gaze that must have inspired the "Wise Owl" legends- all the hallmarks of a fully developed raptor. So how soon will Widget leave the nest and join the unmeasured legion of never observed nocturnal predators? New terms have entered our vocabulary. "Branching" is what owl enthusiasts call the stage of moving from the box to nearby bushes and trees. Speaking of enthusiasts- a word of thanks to the dedicated group of enthusiasts who have kept an eye on Widget in various time zones so that a quick stop on U Stream every morning has given us daily feeding reports.Shall we call it d day- for departure day?

Headed toward empty nest
Widget seems to be maturing quickly. At night he prances around in the Owl Box, flaps his wings, displaying gorgeous adult feathers, and loudly sounds off, we presume to call his parents to bring food. The UStream video chat feature is keeping us nicely informed about nocturnal activities like feeding- but egad, how is it that there are viewers at 0230? Is owl watching an insomniac's domain?
Have heard the next phase is " branching"- apparently the young owls will hop out of the box to nearby branches- and then back into the box again? There seems to be  a lot of " pouncing"- he/she jumps on items in the box with talons out, which we suppose to be hunting practice. We have some food set aside for Widget in the freezer in case the parents stop showing up.

What to do when the food runs short. We have taken to recording the nights to see if Widget is getting enough food.Most nights, a parent brings food.Rabbits were often seen in the first months.Rats and ice have been the most frequent drop offs in recent weeks.One night no food was brought in, at least as far as we could tell. We began to fret that with inadequate food, Widget might dwindle....so off to the pet store. A local reptile supply shop provided fresh rats and mice. So how does one deliver fresh frozen rodents to an immature owl? I thought about climbing up ( not easy with the owl box mounted on a tall skinny 4x4). Pitching mice is a stretch- the little door would be hard to hit even if the nearby trees weren't blocking the pitch path. Long story short- a long handled aluminum pole with a small fork taped to the end. Seems now like a mouse is a mouse- the white store bought mice disappear in one huge gulp just like field mice. Down the hatch widget!

Sounds of the night Among the startling aspects of owl watching, sounds rank high. The signature call, which we've heard at night on and off for years is a loud short sound , something like skreeeeeahh with a crescendo decrescendo character. Some nights we can hear several individuals calling out like this, echoing around the little valley we live in. Another strange phenomenon is a sort of clicking that Barn owls make as they are flying. We've wondered if this is a way mates call to each other. The baby makes yet another sound - sort of like reeeee, reeee, reeee- repetitive on and on through the evening. I think this sound can be captured and shared. We are guessing that it calls out to the parents? Anyone want to hear it posted here or on FB?

If you would like to install your own owl box Here is a rough outline of the necessary parts labor and cost Owl Box $100 obtained from a San Diego box builder 4x4 treated Concrete 2-3 sacks Mounting Bolts $150 Cable PVC , brackets, mounting screws Owl cams, mounting boxes $200 Labor: box assembly; machining and installation 4-8 hrs Software setup, computer 3 hrs Cable installation 4 -8 hrs Cost varies by the design of the box, hardware selected distance from box to a home base etc. We did all our own construction, assembly cabling and software installation, with invaluable assistance from Eric Hogan, our middle son.He is a software engineer and a very able builder.

Phase III- the electronics Once the Owl Box was built and installed, next came the technical aspects. After careful consideration of multiple options, we settled on a hard wired configuration with two cameras.One camera would be mounted on and facing into the box, the other external camera would face the entrance to the box. Both would be day and night cameras. The installation included a custom fabricated waterproof housing attached to the owl barn, dual cables ( one for each camera), conduit, and ultimately a stand alone computer to receive the incoming data. All hardware selection was by Eric Hogan. Yes we had to " pull cable"- conduit was run several hundred feet to the box and it was necessary to thread a pair of very long power over ethernet cables from the point of origin to the box. ( many trips to electronic stores, hardware outlets etc.)Once powered up software had to be located to handle the video signal, again installed by Eric. Bingo!- it worked right the first time, and we had live realtime input- from an empty Owl Barn

Once we decided that having an Owl Box would be interesting, we set about acquiring the needed materials. First came the Owl Box itself. A local artisan makes several types of owl boxes.We tracked him down and had a long chat about how to install the box. Taking the purchased box home was exciting- the project had begun to take shape! The box came with installation instructions- a list of mounting hardware and lumber, concrete etc. One trip to the lumber yard later we had all the needed materials to install the box. Bolts, washers, 4x4s, concrete- a tidy pile of goods! The tools needed for this step include a good drill, drill bits, shovel, wheelbarrow for mixing concrete and good wrenches for bolting everything together once preparations are complete. Locating the box is the optimal location is an issue too- far from the nearest humans makes sense- but the distance means that wireless connections may not work for the electronic components. For budding owlbox enthusiasts, I'd suggest considering this phase of development a one person one weekend project.

Reflections on the Granite Hills Owl project

It began with Connie’s visit to a North County San Diego website. She remarked about how interesting it was to be able to visit a Owl Box website. 

She said that some people became fascinated with Owl cams to the point that they spent hours every day checking out Owl activities.

Exactly what it was that seemed so mesmerizing about peering into the lives of birds was never stated, but the buzz of excitement was unmistakable.

Some months later her observation triggered an idea; if folks in North County had found a way to attract Owls and then and developed a way to observe Barn Owl behavior, maybe we could develop a version of our own.

These simple thoughts generated a wave of activity that has opened our eyes to a whole nocturnal raptor world, which has now lasted many months, and has given friends spread out literally from Hawaii to the East Coast the opportunity to share the lives of East County Barn Owls realtime .

Next ; Phase I - the development and construction

Bob Hogan