Confessions of an Owlcoholic—watching Molly and McGee

I really thought when the Shiba Inu Puppies went to their forever homes I would have more time to… I don’t know, re-roof the house, write a novel, work for world peace.

But it was not to be.

My blogging buddy Jackiesue turned me on to the USTREAM Owl Box and I’m joining those experiencing MOD, Molly Obsessive Disorder.

The scene is an owl box in the one acre yard of Carlos and Donna Royal in San Marcos, California. They built an owl box equipped with cameras two years ago but this is the first time they have attracted inhabitants. The cameras have zoom and night vision capabilities.

Mollie and her mate-for-life, McGee, are common barn owls who have produced five viable eggs. Barn owls lay eggs over a period of several days and they hatch in the order they were laid. On Sunday the fourth egg hatched with over 18,000 anxious owlcoholics looking on.

Mollie stays with her brood while McGee spends his days at Hooters sleeping in a nearby tree. At night McGee stops by for visits and brings back groceries, mainly rabbits and rodents. People on the east coast are losing a lot of sleep waiting for it to get dark out here so they can see McGee.

Through the day Mollie snoozes, cleans house, or rips apart the dead bodies McGee has provided and tenderly feeds her rapidly growing babies.

Live chat is available. It consists mostly of people anthropomorphizing the birds, coming up with word plays on "owl," or complaining about their dining habits.

Isn't it amazing how little some people know about wild animals? They seem to think that Carlos should cater some tofu owlet chow and spare the untimely deaths of  rodents of the area. Hopefully those people will just stop watching or at least commenting.

Stop by to say hello to the world’s favorite owl family reality show. You may even get MOD.

More information from Amazon on barn owls in sidebar.

Comments

[Tammy]

Oh no! Another live animal cam to obsess over! I loved the shiba puppies, and I love watching Lily the Bear on her den cam too. I'll go check out the owls now! (And add it to my list of "must check" sites!) :)

[John Earle]

Well, yeah, the owls are neat. But do the Royals have a DOG? What breed? Does he (she) bark at the owls? I came for my dog fix!

(grin) John

[Jan]

John,

Actually these poor unenlightened people have no dogs or cats to disturb their "eco-friendly" yard.

But if you listen at various times of the day you can hear the neighbor's dogs barking like they want to get in on the act. :)

[pam]

This morning I saw Molly sleeping peacefully, her head resting on a dead rabbit. Sorry, kids, no Easter Bunny this year.

[Hudson]

There is nothing more entertaining to me than nature at its best. What a fabulous idea to cam these owls !!!

[Clive]

How brillant!

We put up a birdbox with camera in our garden this year hoping to attact some nesting bluetits. My aunt had the box in her garden last year and became totally hooked watching the birds and the seven eggs (finally chicks). No success yet but will go check up on the owls now!

[jackie]

I can't tell you how many people I have gotten hooked on the owls..they write me obscene emails blaming me for not getting any work done and the kids are starving..heehhee

[Dennis the Vizsla]

This isn't far from where we live. I've checked in on Molly a couple of times -- she's very cute. We've looked into putting up an owl box in the past but they are very expensive. Maybe someday. We need more owls around here.

[Khyra]

We're furry partial to our Peregrines but love the owls too -

We enjoyed watching the owl khamera on the Wooshington State site too -

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra

[Becky]

Now how cool is that? Love the owls.

[georgie]

"while McGee spends his day at Hooters" will be hard to forget that line!

[Karen Friesecke]

never got into the shiba cam, but i'm going to check out the owl cam.

[puppy training]

All i can say is that , it can be a negative thing. The owl cam. :)