The first egg of 2013 was laid sometime this morning, about five weeks ahead of last year’s schedule. Expect the Nest Box Cam’ page to be fully updated later today.



Also, I’ve seen Chris Cooley’s work on the new “Owl Nest Box” app for iPhone and (and, new for this year, iPad). It’s looking good, but work is still underway. Regrettably, quickly making last year’s app available on the App Store
Owl Cam’ viewers can now witness the current pre-nesting behavior. With an owl consistently spending the day in the nest box, I’ve fired-up the nest box cam’, even though nesting may still be some weeks away, and have modestly improved the main page, primarily with the simple addition of the small, five minute, time-lapse movie from 12 hours earlier (it sits directly beneath the current five
Thanks to Ruth F. for this article on an aspect of vertebrate physiology that I'd never even considered: How Owls Spin Their Heads Without Tearing Arteries.

The microphone in the nest box has been a source of maddening frustration ever since I installed it years ago. The problem has been a humming noise that comes and goes on a period ranging from hours to months, thereby making systematic debugging of the setup impossible. At its worst, the hum drowns out virtually all of the sounds the mic is supposed to be capturing in the nest box, and, more than