Our next segment is nesting and nestling prep.

Okay now we are coming down to the nuts and bolts of the nesting cycle and this starts with the egg laying.

The average clutch size is 2.3 eggs which means usually it's two eggs or in a bumper crop year it will be three eggs.

The female lays these eggs a couple of days apart and begins incubation immediately with the laying of the first egg.

Remember this because when the hatching occurs there will be a difference of a couple days in hatching.

So if you are having a nest under observation either through camera or up close and personal don't think that the second egg just because it didn't hatch right away is not viable because this is a step ladder family.

She begins incubating with the first egg, development begins at that time.

So then maybe two days later the development catches up and we have a second bird.

Usually two chicks, usually the ratio is 50-50, one male, one female.

What happens is the incubation range, and I'm giving you a range, range start to finish, is approximately 32 days to 36 days.

There are a lot of variables that determine that, many environmental, but there can also be some genetic and physical variables.

But anyway, she'll lay the first egg and roughly 32-36 days later the eggs will hatch.

Now at that point the male is the sole provider for the female bringing food.

Remember, the weather is cold.

In Maryland, January or February she's incubating and when she hatches in February or March the weather is still pretty cold.

So she needs to stay on these chicks to keep them warm because they don't have their full body temperature at that point.

They're not totally warm-blooded.

They will get underneath her breast feathers and she has a brood patch.

A brood patch is she's plucked feathers that she's down to bare skin.

So the bare skin is touching the babies and heating them up.

She'll keep them on her legs which are feathered, so there's good insulatory properties there to keep them warm.

So the male is bringing the female food during incubation.

The food exchange is very quick.

She will get off the nest, take the food.

The male sometimes, sometimes, this is a matriarchal society, but the male sometimes will immediately go to the nest and keep the eggs warm providing the female is off the nest exercising, excreting, eating, taking care of basic maintenance.

Usually that exchange is so quick, within a minute or two, that the female will come right back and feed on the nest while she's incubating.

Okay, let's jump to the hatching part.

After the babies hatch, roughly the mom needs to brood them.

That means keep them warm because they don't have their regular body temperature yet, for about seven to ten days.

At that point, the male is still bringing the food through the brooding cycle.

But, an interesting point, the male stops hunting in the immediate area of the nest.

We're back to range again, depending on where we are in that mid-Atlantic region.

Somewhere from a week to three weeks to give the resource an opportunity to come back so that there is food available right around the core territory, the nesting site.

Because when the female is able to leave the nest for a period of time, she's no longer brooding constantly, she will hunt the immediate area but still being able to keep an eye on the chicks or any possible danger and be back at that nest right away.

She doesn't have to go long range to find food because whatever mice were birthing in the area, whatever rabbits or squirrels have moved back into the area because it hasn't been hunted by the male for a period of time.

So there's the availability of the resource.

At this same time, right after she stopped brooding and she started hunting for the nestlings, the male will supplement food if necessary.

But his primary job of being the main provider, which he was while the female was incubating, is over.

But he will supplement food and she will indicate to the male through a special vocalization, yo, I need help here.

We need some grub for these kids and I can't put it all out there by myself.

So not to be anthropomorphic, there is some cooperative hunting between male and female at that time.

What exactly are the babies doing now that the mom's not covering them full time? She's out on the hunt.

What's happening in a nest? Unless we're observing through a camera or something, we really don't know because the owlets are too small to be seen above the edge of the nest.

So what are they doing while the mom is out hunting for them? Nearby, remember within eyeshot, first of all, they're huddling together because it's still cold.

Secondly, they're squirming around a little bit.

They can't see because their eyes are just about opening.

So their whole world is that nest site.

So they're trying to stay warm.

They know another one is there.

They're starting to exercise a little bit for future development and they kind of are just laying low until the mom comes back.

All they care about at this point is eat, sleep, excrete, and where's mom?