On Feb. 2, Olive never came into the opening of the box. I hoped that she was having a sleep-over somewhere and, when I checked the next afternoon, there she was! I was delighted that she was still residing in the box. The next night, however, she was absent once again. And the next night, and the next night, etc. Yesterday, around 2:30PM, on a beautiful warm sunny day, I decided to look in the box and was disappointed, but not really surprised, to see the box empty. So, the long and short of it is that we have not seen Olive since Feb. 4 - a total of 9 nights. Nor have we heard any WSO's calling. Not being a WSO biologist, I don't really know what all this means. Is Olive still alive? Was the owl in the box really a female? Or might it have been a new male who was merely checking out the suitability of the box for a mate? If the owl in the box was really Olive, who, last year, nested successfully somewhere other than that box, might she have returned to her successful nest site? I have no answers.
So, I guess we just watch and wait. We've had a lot of wind lately and the ground under the redwoods is a mess. I'll try to clean up that area as slowly as I can so I can spend a lot of time watching for any signs of owl nests in those trees. I left the door to the box a bit open so the squirrels don't try to take over the box. Should we learn anything more about these charming owls, I'll post it here immediately.
