2025 Season
2024 Season
Summary:
February 16th, 2024 - First Egg laid
February 20th, 2024 - Second Egg laid
February 22nd, 2024 - Third Egg laid
February 24th, 2024 - Fourth Egg laid
February 27th, 2024 -Fifth Egg laid
March 22nd, 2024- First egg hatches
March 22nd, 2024- Second egg hatches
March 22nd, 2024- Third egg hatches
March 23rd, 2024- Fourth egg hatches
March 23rd, 2024- Fifth egg hatches
2022 Season
Summary:
March 26, 2022 - First Egg
March 28, 2022 - Second Egg
March 31, 2022 - Third Egg
April 3, 2022 - Fourth Egg
2021 Season
Summary: TBD
January 31, 2021 - First Egg
February 3, 2021 - Second Egg
February 5, 2021 - Third Egg
February 8, 2021 - Fourth Egg
PREVIOUS NESTING SEASONS
2020 - 5 eggs laid, 4 hatched and fledged
2019 - 5 eggs laid, 5 hatched and fledged
2018 - 0 eggs laid (box abandoned before nesting due to ant invasion)
2017 - 5 eggs laid (including Digger), 4 hatched and fledged
2016 - 5 eggs laid (including the infamous Fig), 5 hatched and fledged
2015 - 4 eggs laid, 4 hatched and fledged
2014 - box not inhabited
2013 - 4 eggs laid, 4 hatched, 3 fledged (1 expired)
2012 - 5 eggs laid, 5 hatched and fledged
2011 - 5 eggs laid, 5 hatched and fledged
2010 - 1 egg laid, 1 hatched and fledged
THE HOOT HOUSE SOUTH
The Hoot House South is in a residential neighborhood near the busy DFW Airport in Texas. This owl house is across the creek from the other owl house you’ve seen here on HDonTap, now known as Hoot House North. Leo and Lily of Hoot House North, and Major and Maggie of Hoot House South live on opposite sides of Big Bear Creek in the little town of Grapevine, where the people are kind and the mayor is great! For the past few years we’ve watched our resident Eastern Screech Owls raise their families of owlets, and people around the globe have watched with us. Now we’re joining with HDonTap to double the fun by sharing the wonders of our Hoot House South with my daughter’s owl house -- Hoot House North!
Owl fans may enjoy comparing the activity in the two boxes. My daughter and I have learned that each owl is unique, and their behaviors are unique to them as well. For example, each mother owl has different instincts and temperaments. Some mothers are very vocal with their owlets, while others are not. The same is true for the father owls, and so they behave differently. Some fathers happily bring in food and place it at the owlets’ feet, coo at them, and quietly leave to find more. Some dads crash in, dump the food, and blast out. The antics are a hoot!
In 2009 we built and installed an owl nesting box according to the specs published by Audubon. That year we also turned our yard into a wildlife sanctuary. Our goal was to provide a safe place for Eastern Screech Owls and other wildlife in our neighborhood to raise their young.
As it turns out, the expression “If You Build it, He Will Come” served to be true. In 2010 Ty climbed up a ladder to check our nest box in the back yard and found a single owlet inside. A pair of Eastern Screech Owls had moved in and were raising their single chick in our box. That was the beginning of our fascination with this special species. We were hooked. We read whatever we could find about Eastern Screech Owls and their habits. We studied the data. As we watched the owl activity on our TV monitor, we discovered some amazing things about nature and owls, and how some species have adapted to living in the city.
We wanted to share the fun and teach what we were learning with others, so in 2016 we cobbled together some borrowed and outdated equipment and started streaming our owl box on the Internet. Within days – without any advertising – we had thousands of people around the world tuning in to watch our tiny little owl house. Classrooms started watching, and teachers used it to teach lessons on biology and the environment.
We watched as the adult pair raised their sweet clutch of owlets. We watched them communicate, feed, and lovingly protect them. We watched as the owlets fledged and fell to the ground. We watched mom and dad coach them up to the branches and teach them to fly. We watched them learn to hunt. I cried as we watched them leave in the summer. Now with the help of the good people at HDonTap, we can share our
wondrous owls with all of you. We can share the egg laying, the feeding, the hatching, the preening, the cooing – all with audio! What a hoot!
For the past several years, "Major" and "Maggie" have raised many successful owlets at this location