“An owl is mostly air.”
Ursula K. Le Guin, poet
Nature at Home is a series of blog posts on Vashon Nature Center programs and activities. With each post we provide further learning opportunities and community science projects or actions you can do from home. You can subscribe to our blog in the sidebar of this page to make sure you don’t miss any posts.
We’ve got a perfect quarantine activity for you this week! Vashon Nature Center is in our third year of partnering with generous and willing landowners to livestream the nesting experience of a Barn Owl pair on Vashon. We’ve repaired the owlcam setup after some storm damage and wrestled with some technology mysteries and we are live again! George and Lizzie are wild owls that have chosen to nest on this property. We don’t know if we are getting the same individuals each year, or some of the offspring coming back to mate and raise young. Barn owls have nested in this area for at least the past 11 years and have been using the nest boxes for the past four years.
The life of wild owls is fascinating, and we have learned a lot about owl behavior and ecology through the lens (literally) of George and Lizzie’s lives.
Some things we have learned:
- Owls eat A LOT of rodents. About 6 rodents per 24-hour period are delivered to Lizzie as she sits on the nest. This number climbs considerably as the owlets hatch and start feeding.
- Owls lay a lot of eggs (in our three years of observation, George and Lizzie have laid between 5−7 eggs each year).
- Not everyone survives. Even with very responsible parents like George and Lizzie, we have never had all the hatched owls fledge, some sadly die along the way (so if you watch the livestream with kids, prepare them for this).
- Barn owlets are incredibly mischievous, and each brood is different. For example, last year we had what was probably the most mischievous brood yet. They regularly climbed out of the nest as they were beginning to learn to fly and perched in the barn rafters, fell to the ground and climbed ladders back into the box, and one even found its way inside the barn that the nest box was attached to!
- Some owls have a harder time leaving their parents then others. Even after fledging, a few owls will return to the nest box in hopes mom and dad will give them some food. Learning to hunt can be hard!
- This year, George and Lizzie have 7 eggs and 6 have already hatched! Tune in to see them in action.
- Each year we come away with more questions: where do the young ones go after they fledge? how instrumental are these owls in keeping rodent populations in check? what is the lifespan of our owls? And so much more. What questions do you have after getting to know this owl family?
Thank you to those who have donated time or money to keep the owlcam livestream alive. We really appreciate you!
Learn more:
Local Barn Owl nesting experience on our blog
More Birdcams – from eagles to owls to songbirds to ospreys this selection of birdcams from Cornell University will give you hours of watching fun!
Vashon Nature Center’s Wildcam page
Community science you can do from home:
Nestwatch– Find where birds are nesting on your property and report nesting success to Cornell’s Bird Lab to contribute to a national study on how birds are doing.
Build nest boxes—be sure to follow these expert-approved designs. Building the wrong type of nest box can do more harm than good by providing comfortable homes for invasive species. If your box is inhabited use nestwatch (above) to report nesting success!
Join this UW bird survey from your backyard to track changes in bird behavior due to COVID-19.
Your donation of any amount goes directly to our nature education, research, and community science programs.