Camping and catch up!

Lukas went on his first camping trip this weekend. Jesse and Amy borrowed the condo (our big tent) and went to Fort Custer for the weekend. Friday night it RAINED and at 2:22 in the morning Jesse sent us a picture of the 3 of them smiling and trying to stay dry.They said Lukas was providing comic relief. I guess a little later they noticed that Lukas was getting a little wet so he and Amy moved to her parents camper. On Saturday night it got down into the 30's and even though they had a heater in the tent it was COLD. Amy said that she thought Lukas was turning into a Lukascicle so they brought him into bed with them. Here he is hanging out in grandpa's truck....I think he may be a true outdoors man, way to go Lukas!!!

Home away from home for the weekend. Now getting ready to go home.

Here is the happy family enjoying some dessert at the fire pit.

Now I think it needs to be said that Dave was bogarting the baby. After he and Jesse went for a trail ride, he wouldn't give him up for long. Here they are playing with a little stuffed...what else...owl.

This is Madison and as she told me, she is Lukas's cousin......she was having lunch in his bumpo chair, too cute:)

This is Kailey and Nana. Lukas's other cousin and Amy's mom.

And cousin Rachael was enjoying her own lunch at the table.

After we left the campground we made a quick stop at Sarah's house. She stayed home today in order to catch up on some yard and house work. It is nice to see how her yard is growing. Still some work to do but definitely looks good. You can see that Charlie is keeping watch at the front door.

Now that we have caught up with the human family we shall move on to the owl family. Saturday was a really WINDY day!!. We looked out the kitchen window to find one of the owlets perched at the tippy top of one of the trees. Every time the wind would pick up she would be flapping and flopping to hang on.....The following awesome, interesting, would not load video shows this!!! :( Oh, well on to the next subject. Heard the screeching down the drive and once again we found 2 owlets in a tree now on this side of the drive. Here they were not swinging a swaying as much.

I know I didn't turn this picture...After being so disgusted that I could not load that video I got lazy, but isn't she still cute?

OK so just as I was finishing this blog this showed up at the end. I guess all I have to do is let the puter sit for a hour and let it load.....wow. Enjoy anyways!!!!

At the campground I was discussing morels mushrooms with Amy's brother-in-law John. We have looked in the past around our woods and every so often we will find a few. But, not recently. So last night we were doing some owl hunting and were standing talking, a few minutes later I looked down and look what I saw. Seriously, I was shocked!!

So I went up near the shed where we have seen them before and found 1 more.....wow we have a morel farm....:)

Monday morning as Dave was leaving for work he called me on the cell and suggested that I get the camera and head down the drive......3 babies in the same tree!!! This was a new one for us. We have never seen them all in the same tree once they left the nest. We are enjoying being able to keep track of them.

I will end this blog with my favorite photo of the weekend. Grandpa and his favorite little man. Lukas found grandpa's beard fascinating and Dave obliged by letting Lukas play. Anybody who knows Dave will understand how cool this is.

Can you tell I LOVE this family!!??!!

Another day!!

First, it has been too long since I included pictures of Lukas in the blog. You can never get enough Lukas. I know I had a video of him sitting the other day but, I just thought he was too cute here.

The other night was hair night at Sarah's (or night of beauty) whatever you want to call it!! No Jesse and Lukas did not participate but, they did come for a visit to watch the process. Actually they came up to get their trailer and some camping gear, but we made them watch. Aunt Sarah couldn't get her hands on him fast enough. And grandpa barely made it in the door before his hands were out for his turn.

Lukas has got to be one of the happiest little fellows. Before they headed back home he got changed and jammies on. He laughs and talks through the whole thing. He has 2 new learned behaviors. Finger sucking....which he works at very hard....and when he gets the wrong two fingers in the slurping noise is too funny. Amy said the other day he gagged himself he was sucking so hard. The other thing he is attempting is rasberry's. It is the cutest thing to see him doing this!!! I think he is quite satisfied in himself.

All together now!!!! AAAWWWWWWW!!!!!

OK so now the owls...... This morning Hootie was sitting in the same cherry tree in the front yard as one of the babies. It did not rain last night but for some reason she was really wet. We have seen her head wet when she has hunted in the white water rapids with waterfall (or creek) behind the house but she was soaked today?

Yesterday afternoon this was the owlet in the front yard. I am really happy that they have stayed around the house this year. Usually they moved around a lot more and were much harder to keep track of. This one has been in the same tree for this whole week and just moves from branch to branch.

Last night Dave heard the others screeching for dinner down the drive. He was surprised to see they had moved from the trees they were in had made there way closer to the house. And even better were doing it together. We have seen 2 owlets together before, but not this close or at this early stage. Last year when they were older we saw them playing together on the branches ( almost like playing tag).

FINALLY!!!!!! Took awhile but I was able to upload a video!!!! The clicking you hear was Dave attempting to communicate with the owls!!! Hey I told you we had cashews/issues!!

From the sounds they are making and the size we are guessing this is Sophia and Blanche.

And this is Rose.

Yesterday was really windy and we noticed that the owlets were smart enough to come down a little in the trees and also they seemed to have found branches that were a little more stable. This has not always been the case as we have watched them swinging and swaying on tiny branches 70 feet in the air over the driveway during some REALLY brutal winds. I told Dave it was because even though we don't know the sex, the fact they have girls names makes them smarter than in the past!!! :)

After 10pm last night all three owlets were screeching up a storm asking for food. Dave had gone to the garage to prepare his bike so he could ride to work and called me out. We turned off all the lights and stood listening to them. We also heard Hootie screeching (she has a trill at the end of her screech) letting Blowfish know he better get hunting. From the directions of the noise we could tell that Rose was still out front, Blanche or Sophia had moved closer to the house and the other was still down the drive. This morning I was able to spot 2 but could still hear all 3. Again thanks for your intrest and I would love to hear from anyone who may be reading this. You can comment at the end or send me an e-mail. Thanks!!

update 09

So, yesterday I was going from the living room to the kitchen when something outside caught my eye. It happened to be Hootie sitting on a branch just off the deck window. Of course the camera was in the kitchen and I was sure she would see me and take off. I snuck around the other way and grabbed the camera. I was able to take both pics and videos. She dove down to the yard and then across the lawn sat in a lower branch. She then flew to the front of the house. I went to the garage and she was delivering food to one of the owlets. One more big mole gone.....many more to go!!

She came back to the same spot and sat for around 10 min. then moved to another tree behind the house. For those who know our yard it was right over the wood pile.

Here she is peeking around the tree.

The next move was to a tree directly behind the house. I loved how the branch bounced up and down when she landed on it. She stayed there for quite awhile, with some smaller birds flitting around annoying her.

She watched the ground intently but I never saw her pounce on anything before she took off.

I am sorry to say...I love this picture, is that patting yourself on the back? It was taken through the living room window and she really looks like she was staring intently at the leaf. She was not, she was looking down.

Then the next surprise of the day! I was headed out the garage when I saw her flying across the front of the house. I looked out and she was on the flagpole. Of course the camera was in the house so I took a chance and went to get it. I came back out and quietly came around the back of the Jeep. I was surprised she was still there, and she let me stand there, not more that 20 feet from her.

She didn't even mind that I moved around in and stood in front of the garage. Very tolerant

On to the babies. They have all 3 staying near the house, in various trees. One is still right in front of the house and 2 in a tree across the driveway. This is the one in the front of the house and it was taken right after she had breakfast.

This is the one across the drive. It is about 70 feet off the ground.

This is my attempt at being artsy.


All in all it was a busy day for the owls. I told Dave it was hard to accomplish anything as no matter where I wanted to go they were there doing something. This has been different than in the past...maybe they are just used to us .Owlets this close for so long is not the norm, but we will enjoy while we can. I am disappointed because I have some nice video and again blogspot will not upload. I sat here for about 15 min; it said it was processing and then.....no can do!!!! URRRGGGGGG!

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.

Ok finally the Owls

Sophia was the first out of the box and the following is a video just after Hootie brought lunch.

So Friday morning 2 of the owlets had already left the nest box. The only one left was Rose. She was not at all willing to leave the box area.

It really didn't matter how much coaxing that Hootie did she still would not leave. Here you can see she even went back to the box opening. At one point she even went back into the box and Hootie climbed back in and pushed her out. It was something that we have not seen before in the 3 other years we have had owlets.


Hootie would come to the perch and wander back and forth flapping her wings. Here she tried flying to a nearby branch and coaxing Rose out...to no avail.


I was sitting and watching and I think Hootie thought I was too close, in case Rose decided to get brave. She flew right at me and landed about 20 feet away from me and gave a little warning hoot. I moved back a few feet carefully.


Rose was content to spend the day on the perch and spent much of that time walking back and forth and stretching and flapping her wings. Don't you love those legs??



I located Blanch in a tree overhead. I couldn't believe that she was just hanging there. Somehow she was supported by her wings and her legs were dangling.


Here you can see Rose still sitting near the box and the sign we have in the driveway.


Here is a short video of how the day was going with Rose.



Early in the afternoon I was able to find Blanch in the tree right over the driveway. I love the color contrast in this picture. And come on how cute is this owlet??!!!

I will leave you today with this shot. They are so fluffy. Of course on Friday night we have rain and wind and cooler temps. Why else would the babies leave the nest. Seems like every year right after they come out we have that kind of weather so we have to wonder about what is happening.
Well enough for now. I will let you know how things progressed on Saturday and Sunday in the next blog. Thanks for listening!!

Mother's Day

I know I promised a owl update and I plan on doing that....maybe yet this afternoon. But now that is is Mother's day I thought I should do one with the family instead. Wednesday I went to V-burg to see Lukas...Oh, and Jesse and Amy. Here is Lukas singing to me....or maybe saying OH NO that women with the camera again!!!

Jesse and Amy trusted me enough to bring Lukas up to Grandma and Grandpa's house. He got to sleep in his pack and play for the first time.Who sleeps cuter than this?

I know it looks like Lukas was just left alone in the house but I assure you he was not!! The entire family was there, we were just watching from afar.

See I told you. Grandpa and Aunt Sarah were close by to play with him.

Here is a family photo.....Everyone looking good!!

Now for the important news of the day.....Watch this video, just don't watch the strange acting women in the background.



OK , so I am at Sarah's and the blogger seems to be willing to upload my videos so I am thinking you may be forced to read an owl update also, so fasten your seat belts.