Next, Judy will talk about preparatory skills.

Preparatory skills of the owlets refer to what they learn and practice on the nest that will aid them in survival when they fledge.

The owlets really start preparing to be an owl off the nest on day one, but we are going to skip over days one to nine because remember their eyes are closed.

So it's mostly a squirming, huddling, head up, just kind of trying to coordinate all body parts for survival off the nest down the road.

I am really emphasizing from day 25 through fledging. The average fledge date is at 55 days. So these birds have approximately 30 days to learn a lot of tricks of the trade that will help them when they fledge.

Remember, fledging is leaving the nest and being out in the woodlot. What happens is they need to really fine tune and hone up their eye, foot, and muscular coordination.

Now they're limited. The whole world is that nest. In our case here, that whole world was the tire platform.

So they're limited in the ability to move around, determined only by the size of the nest.

So they might have to do all these activities in a real tiny space, which in my mind's eye, sharpens them even more than if they have room to move about on the nest.

What are some of the things that they need to coordinate to help them be these tigers of the night, so-called, and hunting silently in the future?

One, they got to know how to work the feet. So one of the prep skills is learning how to open and close the foot.

Now you'd think it's instinctive, but they will be watching opening and closing of the foot.

Second thing is known as a foot stab. They have to be able to thrust the foot out and then close and grab.

Another thing is the foot raise after they caught something and they want to take it to the beak.

They have to be able to stab, close, and raise to the beak. So they practice all this on a nest, including periodically with each other.

Now they're not always successful with each other, but they grab a hold of each other and pull each other close and so forth.

They do not close the talons tight on the sibling, but they do practice foot stabs on the nest. So those are three basics, working the feet.

The second thing is they need to coordinate the beak with the feet, which requires practicing lowering the head and bringing the foot up at the same time.

Now you'd think that'd be an instinctive thing, but just like us learning some type of activity where we need eye, hand coordination, etc.

It needs to be practiced to be 100% effective. And remember, these birds, in order to survive off the nest, need to be 100% effective.

They can only go a couple days without food or if they're not wary to danger, etc.

There's a surprise. They're only careless one time. So with that in mind, 55 days fledging, they have 30 days to learn all this stuff.

Well, what do they have that they can practice on in a nest? Obviously the substrate of the nest, sticks that are loose in the nest, prey items that are half eaten in the nest.

There are a number of things. In our case, they can even practice on the edge of the tire because it's rigid enough that they can grab a hold of it, etc.

They practice pouncing. Pouncing is a short hop on something. And in real life, when they learn their hunting skills, oftentimes they'll grab a rat by the rear end.

It'll squiggle out from the talon. They'll take a little hop and pounce to try and grab it by the forequarters. So what the circumstance is, is they now have to incorporate learning movement with the feet, etc.

We're not even talking about flight. That comes later with the fledging. But there have been about 30 isolated actions on the nest that contribute to survival when these birds fledge.

And as I mentioned, most of them are coordination of the body parts and movements from walking to pouncing to hopping, etc. So the birds practice this.

They have nothing else to do. Remember, the whole world is that nest platform. So when they're not doing their three favorites, eat, sleep, and excrete, they are practicing their skills for when they leave the safe haven of the nest.