Day 20, still haven't left the nest

Report here every day around this time. There will be more owl information than you will ever require!

There are lots of articles during owl baby season of people getting chased off, having their hats taken, etc. With the investment and risk the owls are taking to have babies, one can understand why they're determined on keeping you away. They know what a danger you are, but they've put their lives on the line already to make sure their babies live.

I'm glad you didn't get scratched! They're just trying to be good owl parents.

Yes! His job is not too much easier than hers. He will feed himself, the Mrs, and start storing food in nearby caches for when the babies hatch. This is why it is super critical to protect these birds even more than usual during this period. Should anything happen to mom or dad, everyone is in trouble.

My mate brings me food, when he can find it.

If I shift wrong, they freeze on one side.

Are you referring to this?

Scientists believe this ensures even and steady temperature, maintaining the internal shell membrane, and also proper distribution of nutrients.

If you've ever seen a bird nudge its eggs with its beak, you may have wondered what all the fuss is about. Turns out, the behavior is a critical part of incubation, and each species may have its own egg-turning recipe to hatch a healthy chick, a new study shows.

Scientists believe that most birds rotate their eggs to ensure that the embryo gets enough albumen—the mixture of water and protein that makes up the "egg white" part of an embryo and provides nutrients to the developing chick. Too little albumen leads to an underdeveloped and usually sickly chick, research on domesticated birds shows. Few studies have investigated egg turning in wild birds, in no small part because the adults are, naturally, in the way.

To get an unprecedented look at what's happening in the nest, Shaffer tricked seabirds into treating plastic eggs with sensors hidden inside as the real thing. Researchers have previously slipped artificial eggs outfitted with sensors into the nests of unsuspecting birds, but Shaffer's team is the first to capture "a full turning" of an egg. That's because the loggers record 3D orientation (thanks to a combination of three-axis accelerometers and magnetometers), as well as temperature.

Short Article Here

Nesting and hatching are much more complex and problematic than most media portrays them. I did a post on hatching before, and it takes about 24 hours from when the shell pips (first crack through to the outside) to when the bird is free from the shell. That's a lot of physical exertion to expect of a newborn! (Here's a second hatching post I found.)