Thursday, March 25, 2010

Hanging Out With Molly

So my mom, who hates birds (don't ask), sends me an email a few days ago with a link to an article in a San Diego newspaper about a couple with an owl box in their yard. The kick is they actually have cameras in the owl box and you can watch Molly (the female owl) and her eggs as they hatch and she raises her family, while her mate McGee, supplies her with yummy little rodents to chomp on.

Oh yeah, I didn't know what an owl box was either...they're fairly popular out where my mom lives (rural San Diego county) because if you have a family of barn owls in your yard or neighborhood, chances are the rodent population will get significantly smaller. So, people put these wooden boxes on very tall poles and hope that a family of owls takes up residence.

Anyhow, in between working on school stuff, and taxes, and all sorts of things, I've been tuning in to watch the drama unfold here.

(Be careful. This is addicting.)

There's something of the weird science nerd in me that finds it fascinating to watch an owl tear apart a rodent and feed her owlets.

But the best part is listening to the bird sounds in the background. Talk about relaxing!

4 comments:

The Bus Driver said...

As a pseudo science geek myself, this is fascinating!

We once had a bird who made a nest in our front planter, we were able to watch it from beginning to end and it was pretty darn cool!

My mother tried to get us into anything science-y too. She was the type of mother who would pull over if there was a cool bug on the windshield of the car (happened more than once!) and my sister and I would peer at it and try and figure out what kind of bug it was.

LOVE anything science.

Yellow rose said...

I've gotten our entire library addicted to Molly! At the same time I'm looking out the window here monitoring with binoculars the nest of a red-shouldered hawk which should begin hatching her eggs the first weekend of April. Not thirty feet away, but in the hollow at the base of a tree, a mallard has laid eight eggs, so far. And all the while college students and faulty pass on sidewalks nearby, totally oblivious.

Vicki

kherbert said...

We have purple martin houses in our school garden. We are trying to find out how to do a web cam in the house.

Anonymous said...

You have made an addict of me! Now if only the Big Deal Mandated Government Net Nanny would just unblock the site at school...