06 September 2023
Welcome back!
When I got back on Monday evening from an arduous, but very successful VENT tour of Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia, I immediately rushed up onto the roof to check on the owls – and found the female lying at the back of the nest with a well grown chick next to her. Encouragingly, there was also the remains of a Vlei Rat in the nest.
Before I could process the photos however, we were hit by load-shedding – which resulted in over 34 hours without electricity after the local substation was vandalised and ransacked during the blackout.
I checked the nest again on Monday morning – and could see two chicks moving next to the female. At least two of the eggs had hatched!
Last night I checked the nest again and found that there was a third chick. The differences in the sizes of the three are more marked than usual but, in spite of the first egg having been left uncovered for several days, it had obviously also hatched. What will she come up with next?
By Geoff Lockwood