this is Mama Owl, proudly keeping watch over her babies, in the last rays of the setting sun, perched close to the baby owls in their nest. This is the first day that the 2 babies had climbed to the edge of the nest cavity.

We were told by some other people, that at this stage, the mother owl will not let the father owl near the nest/babies. He catches food for the babies and deposits the food in a location for the mother owl to get it, and take it to feed the baby owls. I had not heard this before.