A Reminisce- by charb

The Owl Box~ Where are all the lovely people who posted and lurked at the Owl Box? We were an unlikely crowd- held together by the goings on of a family of owls living in an owl box in San Marcos, Ca. I blundered onto this site after seeing a video on TV one night. I was immediately hooked. We all watched through the laying and hatching of Austin, Pattison, Max, and Wesley.

Who will forget owlet Austin first success at swallowing a little mouse whole. To us he was little, but to Austin he was huge. Austin was so tiny, that the mouse was near the same size. It took Austin quite a while, but bit by bit, , after attacking it from many directions, Austin got the hang of it, and swallowed the whole thing! Upon completion of swallowing down the last tip of the tail, poor Austin was so tired- and weighted down in his craw, that he just lay there with his little head too heavy to raise off the floor of the nest! He looked dazed!

And who can forget with the first clutch how constant and dedicated poppa McGee was each night, bringing offering after offering to Molly who was busy tending to the nest. He was so diligent that Molly often had 2 or 3 or more extra rodents stashed off to the side in an overflowing larder of food.

And Molly, herself, the tender, attentive parent carefully pulling off very small pieces of flesh and patiently feeding, one by one, each of her babies. The largest first, until it was sated, and then down the line to the smallest, who she carefully fed with the same patience shown the first baby.