Visitors to Delta Park might have lately come across large, fluffy birds in the grass, or have had the experience of being watched by big, beady eyes in the trees.
Spotted eagle owls have lived in the park for 40 years, but the three new chicks (about seven weeks old) have not been taught by their two parents that humans are to be avoided. Almost carelessly, they sit low in the trees, on fences or on the ground, sleeping, looking for food, or just watching people pass by.
These chicks were born in an owl box constructed by the Delta Environmental Centre’s resident manager, Geoff Lockwood, on the centre’s roof, where owls have laid eggs since Lockwood’s first box was constructed 31 years ago. On average, owls have given birth to about three chicks in the box every year.
Owls generally lay their eggs in June/July, and after a 32-day incubation period, the eggs hatch. Over time, the chicks grow, fall out of the box and learn to fly. By February/March, the owls have grown to full adult size and fly away to make their own homes. Over the years, Lockwood has ringed the owl chicks for identification and tracking, and found that most of the owls only move as far as 12km away from the park.
“There is a good variety of food in the park, but we find spotted eagle owls living in window boxes, owl boxes in gardens, in hollows in trees, and even old hamerkop nests,” he said. Spotted eagle owls eat insects, spiders, reptiles, rodents, small birds, bats and sometimes fish.
The latest additions spend many a day on trees just outside the centre, watching people go by. So far, the only human attacked by the protective parents was Lockwood, but they have swooped down and chased dogs away on more than one occasion.
“I love hearing the owls hooting to each other outside when I give my lectures in the centre,” Lockwood said.
“It is wonderful having them so close. They are beautiful birds.”
He explained that the chicks are about three-quarters through their growth cycle, and their tails and wing feathers need to grow out more. The soft, fluffy feathers on their fronts will fall away to be replaced by the species’ standard front plumage, and the ear tufts are the last feathers to grow out.
Details: delta@deltaenviro.org.za; 011 888 4831.
