Loading ...Welcome to the Oak Creek Owl Cam!
Misty is a barn owl who arrived in our backyard in the beginning of February 2011. Of course, she she did not show up alone, but rather brought with her the sturdy, machismo Malcolm who seems to be a bit camera shy as he only shows up for minutes at a time. Like a bolt of lightning, he will make a rather loud appearance to display the rodent (which he likely slayed on his way to the box), demand some “affection” and fly away like the superman that he is. He is surely living up to his name Malcolm (meaning “royal blood”).
Misty and Malcolm are the first lovely barn owl couple who have decided to create a home in our backyard. And, like many owl couples, they have taken the next step in building their lovely family: BABIES!! We first saw the shiny little owl eggs appear on February 19th, 2011 and are eagerly awaiting the tiny little owl heads to poke their way into this great big world. There are six eggs and Misty has done such a great job with her “motherly” duties keeping every one of them warm all day long. She’s definitely going to have her hands full!
The camera has been there for 4 years now so needless to say we were all pretty shocked when the beautiful Misty and the royal Malcolm showed up in our box and decided to make it their home. We are very excited to share their story with you and welcome you into our Oak Creek Owl Cam Community. On behalf of Misty and Malcolm, welcome and enjoy!
Our owlets have been saved by projectwildlife.org
As Most of you have seen or heard the box is empty after a rescue by the Project Wildlife Program a couple of days ago.
Sorry to say 1 more of Misty & Malcolm’s babies has passed away, but the Wildlife were able to save the last 2 babies in the clutch.
UPDATE: The Babies were taken gently out of the box and put on fluids and in a Incubator for a time and since have been taken out of intensive care.
They are doing much better and as of now off to a foster care program. This is the first step of a four step program, with the ending results being they will be able to learn skills that will enable them to be released into the wild at the right time.
As for the box it will stay up and there are 3 Owl Groups watching the coming and goings of the owls still. This will enable them to see exactly if any more return to start a new family. Misty or Malcolm we still have no idea which was taking care of the babies, but if they do come back the box is there for them.
Lots of spectulation is floating around about what happen to the babies and the unusual actions of the parents. Well in all honesty only Misty and Malcolm know what happen. For now all we can do is move forward and watch and learn. Not all boxes have great success first time out. We just need to hope and pray Misty and Malcolm are both ok and they will return or maybe a new pair of owls will make this their home.
Remember this is nature happy one day and sad the next. we have to except it and go forward. Wishing and praying and hoping for the best in the future. We also know people are concerned that the presence of GHO’s in the area are a problem, well I can’t assure you that is not true we will just have to wait and see for now..
Many people came together to help rescue these 2 small babies and thanking them is never going to be enough. But the satisfaction of knowing 2 of Misty’s babies will fly wild and free one day is a great comfort.. Not all was lost we have those two to remind us of the wonderful family that was in this box even for the short time.
Thanks to all who have been involved in the past few days and to the Mods at Oak Creek thank you for caring for the site and our beautiful owls and the babies.
Welcome to the World Sandi!
Our 5th baby! So proud of our new owlet. Welcome to Poway Sandi!
Hungry Babies
Can’t go to bed, these guys finally get going around 10:30PM PST. They’re sticking out from under her front and it’s just a “hoot” watching it. It’s easiest to see the one in the middle pic, she/he was falling out!
Chow Time
Owlets together
Gathered around perhaps keeping each other warm. First time to see all four heads clearly and all moving around!
Our fourth Owlet
We welcomed a new owlet this morning at 2:40am, 3/29. Misty seems to like the very very late night hatches. Thanks to Elf for keeping an eye on her! We’ll call this one Elf in honor of the late night watch woman!
Welcome to Poway Chloe, Hunter and Bella
We’re so proud of our kids. Welcome to the world Chloe (wow, 209 votes!), Hunter and Bella (the shy one, I saw her last night and haven’t seen her since!). We love our owlets.
We had Great Horned Owls last year!
Last year we were lucky enough to watch as two Great Horned owls took over what the previous year had been a Red Shoulder Hawk nest, It was close enough to our living room that we set up scopes so we could watch them. Even got a camera with a good enough zoom to take pictures. Check these out!
Help name our first baby!
We finally got a shot of the little one all by himself. If you lean forward and squint your eyes you can just make out his/her tiny little owl legs. And where is Misty? Probably out slaying her next feast. What an amazing adventure to be following the life of these little owlets as they crack open their shell and live their first days in the Oak Creek Owl box! We haven’t chosen a name yet, as we have all of our viewers voting for their favorite name. If you haven’t voted yet, get to the top of the page and place your vote!
It’s feeding time
It has been quite an active day here and Misty is a bit of a heroine herself. She went out to catch some grub for herself and the brand new baby. The little one is so cute! You can see it pretty well in this photo. She has been munching away at that rabbit for a while now and doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon. Have you seen her tear apart that flesh? It’s pretty amazing. It looks like Misty can fend for herself and doesn’t need her royal other half Malcolm to do it for her. You go girl!
Our first baby has hatched!
Well it is a glorious day here at the Oak Creek Owl Cam. Our very first baby barn owl has hatched and we are all just so elated! If you can’t seem to see the baby yet, don’t worry, Misty is doing an expert job of protecting her first baby from the camera. She has been warming it all day and we only got a short glimpse of the little owlet. We were not prepared with a name, but that will come soon enough. For now, let’s just all bask in the sunshine of our first baby and it’s very first day on this earth! Thanks to everyone for the support!