01 July 2021
And so it starts . . . she’s in the box
Early this morning I climbed the ladder to check on the nest box, and the female was inside. Initially she was standing and looking around, but when I came back with the camera she had settled. It is too early for her to have laid but there are two interesting things about this update – the first is that I’ve not yet heard any evidence of the male trying to entice the female into the box, and I’ve not actually seen any courtship-feeding. Last season, with her long-established mate, there was a period of over a week that I could hear the male moving in the box and giving his cooing “ho ho ho ho . . .” enticement calls every evening before she settled in the box. Seems as though the new young male is unaware of this step – but at least it looks like the female knows what to do!
The second thing is that the female is in the box 28 days earlier than last season – making this the second earliest that the Delta Owls have started nesting.
Part 2
But wait, there’s more
The female has just left the nest and is sitting on the parapet near the Tea Garden so I’ve just dashed up to check the nest – and there is a single egg nestled down into the river sand. There was nothing this morning so she must have laid sometime during the day.
By Geoff Lockwood