Well, at about 8 o'clock Friday Rose decided to finally leave the nest box. She sat this far away from it for the rest of the evening. Saturday morning she was about 5 feet higher and on the back side of the tree.

We have always wondered why the owls don't seem to sense that the weather is going to be crappy and stay in the box. I swear to you that the day after they leave we have a storm of some kind every year. We are better at not getting too worked up over it. The first year they left the box and for 3 days it was rainy, cold and windy. We were able to find a couple of the owlets in the trees around the house. Hootie and Blowfish will take care of all if possible but, when the weather is bad they keep track of the strongest ones. One of the babies, soaking wet sat in a small tree right along the front yard (20 feet from the house) and screeched all day long. He kept going lower and lower in the tree and we never saw the parents come by to feed or watch over it. We called Blanford nature center and they would not come out unless we knew it had not been fed for 24 hours. The next morning it was no longer in the tree so we assumed it was fed and taken care of. A few weeks later we found the remains behind the shed. So of course Friday night and Saturday it was cold and rainy!! This is a wet Rose hanging out.

This is Blanche wet but doing OK in the big pine. Trust me they were not as wet as we have seen them in the past. They still looked pretty puffy and not all matted down. All 3 of the owlets stayed pretty close to the same spots all day long.......except for Rose. She must have tried for a higher branch at some point and didn't make it. Dave saw Hootie and Blowfish watching the ground and saw Rose making a attempt at climbing the tree. They don't really fly yet so up is mostly done with talons beak and flapping wings. Rose was able to climb a tree along the drive setteling on a spot about 30 feet off the ground. It was awesome, because we were able to stand right under her and get a really close look.

This is Hootie sitting on a stump in the woods feathers spread out drying out.

Here you can see Rose in the spot she was able to climb too. She spent the afternoon here.
Zooming in on her talons to see how they hang on to the branches. You would think they would want a large branch and then dig in. But more often than not the hang out on really small branches and very high in the trees. Sometimes they are almost at the tops of the trees and around here that means 70 feet up swinging and swaying!

This morning ( Monday) I caught a glimpse of Hootie out the living room window making a quick stop on a branch...then off across the lawn. I went out the garage door and heard all 3 owlets screeching from 3 different directions, for breakfast. One of them was right above the basketball hoop in a large cherry tree. Hootie came by awhile later and as of about 10 minutes ago they are both still there.

So, from now on we will keep an eye out for the owlets...maybe I should say our ears. Usually we hear them before we know where to look. Over the last 4 years we have gotten fairly good at spotting them even when they are hidden in the leaves. We will see them till fall. Thanks for following our story. Hope you find it as enjoyable to read as we do to watch and write.