I also spent some time at the owl burrow to see what was happening with the offspring and how things were progressing with this successful breeding. I managed to count and identify 3 young owls, even though there were reports of 4 chicks at an earlier stage. Perhaps the 4th smaller and weaker bird has perished? The parents often flew away from the nest to perch on various look out points, thus leaving the chicks to their own devices. There was a lot of calling backwards and forwards between offspring and parents. I watched as a couple of the juveniles flew a short distance away from the nest and landed on the ground. They spent some time hopping around exploring and some time sitting on the ground in the shade of a shrub. When they saw a parent flying back to the nest they also returned. One of the chicks was more inquisitive/adventurous than the others and spent more time out in the open, hopping from rock to rock around the burrow site. Often looking out in the direction that the parents had flown. A lot of vocalisation was taking place at all times Two siblings looking at me with owl eyes. The one was briefly joined by the other on the same rock One of the chicks has a piece of a wing in its beak. I think it is from the bird carcase below One of the parents brought out the remains of a bird to encourage the offspring to feed. The bird looks like a Lark but this needs to be confirmed. Previously this had been stored in another location at the burrow site, which I had also seen the juveniles visiting from time to time One of the juveniles defecating I observed two of the juveniles carrying out this yawning action. I thought they were perhaps going to regurgitate food pellets, but on both occasions this did not occur. If anybody has another view point on this behaviour I would love to hear it
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