Monday, February 14, 2011

Love is in the air!



Things are heating up around here...both the weather and Rusty and Iris! The weather took a sharp turn to the warmer here starting Saturday, and it was about 50 F on Sunday! Rusty and Iris responded in earnest.

I had only seen them copulate a couple of times previously. Then early Saturday morning they copulated twice! Saturday night to Sunday morning was a workout and a half, with a total of NINE copulations that I noted. Iris started getting into the spirit and hooting along too on Sunday night and between Sunday night and Monday morning they copulated about TEN more times!

So far I haven't noticed Iris paying any attention to the nest. I would expect her to start digging in it and checking it out soon, but these are wild animals, so they'll do whatever they darn well feel like doing. She's still eating, so I wouldn't expect eggs in the next couple of days, since they normally stop eating for a couple of days before laying an egg. I guess this leaves more room for a big egg in the abdomen without needing to compete for space with food and intestines.

If you watch the cam you're going to see LOTS of action all night long now.

10 comments:

  1. Wow!!

    I've been hearing Rusty and Iris both hooting a *lot* the last couple of nights (they're going at it right now, actually). This morning, at around 04:27 PST, Iris was on the front edge of the nest and seemed to be inspecting it--she looked into it pretty intently for a minute or so, then Rusty landed on the perch on the side of the nest, and Iris left about a minute later. Thoughts of using the nest as, well, a *nest*, perhaps?

    I tuned in at 16:02 PST today to Rusty hooting repeatedly and energetically, with Iris answering. Mostly their usual multi-syllabic hoots, but there were a few responses from Iris that sounded more like a staccato four-count hoot (HOO HOO HOO HOO!). Kind of hard to tell--the mic on the nest seems to be better quality, but the Cornell feed tends to stutter--I mute it and use Ustream's audio.

    (Must be a Valentine's Day thing--guess it's not just for hoomanz....)

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  2. It sure was Valentine's day in Houston. There was a mating about halfway through the evening and a huge amount of hooting. Both owls seemed very agitated. Just before midnight EST, Iris flew to the nest and both she and Rusty hooted and looked around as if they were worried about something we couldn't see. I think some of the hooting during the evening came from outside so maybe Rusty was feeling protective and territorial. Fun to watch. MapleOwl

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  3. Yes, MapleOwl, you're right...Victor the wild resident male Great Horned Owl showed up to hoot after Rusty and Iris had been carrying on. I think Rusty especially was feeling protective, and it seems he spent a lot of time at/in the nest. Victor was so bold as to stay in a tree at the edge of the yard even after I walked outside to record him.

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  4. there is lots of action tonight, Iris has already been to the nest 4 times while i was watching and at 9:40pm cam time rusty bonded with iris on far wall perch. Critterwatcher

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  5. I happened to tune in - 5:10 EST- just in time to hear Victor hooting, Iris flying to the near perch and hooting, AND Rusty flying down, hooting, and copulating with her. Then everything went quiet. It was a triple play. Maple Owl

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  6. If you stay up all night you'll get an eyefull! They seem to be copulating about 10 times a night! They seem to start between 5 & 6 PM Central time. I'm waiting for Iris to do some official nest inspections and scratching around in it.

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  7. Just watched your video on the Cornell site of Rusty making a nest for Iris . Having a record of the sounds he makes must be very exciting to you. Thanks for letting us share the experience. Hope she accepts his invitation sometime soon. MapleOwl

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  8. 6:18 EST - One of the birds is definitely making a nest. Trouble is, I'm not sure it's Iris. I hope it is but she might be on the perch. Lots of soft hooting before and after. Something is sure going on. MapleOwl

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  9. Rusty is definately making what i would call a 'nest bowl'. almost same behavior as the bald eagle male. He gets down low, puts his beak into the ground.. and kicks/scratches back with his legs.

    Iris is there watching intently.

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  10. Yes, that's Rusty digging in the nest and grunting. Cool that it's the same thing a male eagle does!

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