From Jason Fowler
This is why you leave owls alone when they are on eggs. People think the owl isn’t stressed standing under her talking loudly with other people.
I haven’t left this branch in 19 days.
It’s 4°F. The wind is 25 mph. The wind chill is -15°F. (That’s -15C, 40 kmh, and -26C respectively.)
I am a Great Horned Owl, and I am incubating three eggs that cannot survive one hour without my body heat.
- I cannot leave to hunt. My mate brings me food, when he can find it.
- I’ve lost 15% of my body weight since I started sitting.
-My feathers are caked with ice. I cannot preen.
- I rotate my eggs every 30 minutes, even at 3 AM.
- I have 9 more days of this before they hatch.
Beneath me, three heartbeats depend on my stillness. If I leave for 20 minutes, they die. If I shift wrong, they freeze on one side. If a predator comes, I must fight without abandoning the nest.
Motherhood is not a feeling. It is a 28-day siege.
I’m afraid it’s going to be even more difficult when they hatch, at least for another month.
She at least gets to stretch to go on pantry runs and bathroom breaks! Pappa needs to kick up the hunting though.
I sure hope so! I guess fluffy owlets will stay warm easier than when curled up inside a wet egg.
I wonder if a properly incubated egg is just like laying in one of those salt water flotation tanks… 🤔
I did that once and it was pretty ok.