Tonight the fly out was at 6:30.  The fly out time seems to be getting later.  The delay, which seemed at first to be connected to the quieting of the nearby squirrels, may be due to some other factor.

In Gehlbach’s The Eastern Screech Owl he observed that initial calls were very late during courting, and became progressively early as incubation and nesting occurred.  It will be interesting to see what the fly out dates are over the next few weeks.

There was debris in the mouth of the cavity tonight.  It was unclear if it was feathers from the owls or prey.

The female stayed out for about ten minutes before returning to the nest.