AUSTIN (KXAN) — You can now watch a famous Central Texas owl raise her family live online thanks to a new Owl Cam at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
KXAN Meteorologist Nick Bannin spoke with Dr. Sean Griffin, Director of Science and Conservation at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center about the camera and the owl that makes it worth a watch.
KXAN Meteorologist Nick Bannin: You just shared some pretty exciting news from the Wildflower Center about your beloved owl, Athena, can you tell us about it?
Dr. Sean Griffin: So we just started a live streamed Owl Cam where you can watch Athena sitting on her eggs and raising her owlets.
Bannin: Why did you decide to invest in an owl cam to stream Athena’s every movements?
Dr. Griffin: So Athena is, I don’t know, almost famous here in Austin. She’s been around for 12 years nesting in the same place and people know her, they love her, but there’s so much that we don’t know about about her life. So by live streaming her, not only are we able to learn more about her, and what she does and how she takes care for babies, but also we can share that with members of the community.
Bannin: Your partnership with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology… what is their interest in a live cam for your favorite owl?
Dr. Griffin: So the Lab of Ornithology has been maintaining some of these live streams for years for a number of different bird species. It’s been a really valuable way to get people engaged and to really build up the these narratives about the animals and and their lives. But they don’t have an owl yet on there, or at least they don’t have a Great Horned Owl on their channel. So they were really interested in partnering with us, especially since Athena has such a story and is such a staple of the Wildflower Center.
Bannin: How long do you expect this owl cam to be in existence?
Dr. Griffin: So we’re going to be keeping the owl cam on for the next couple months while Athena sits, incubates her eggs, usually that’s about four weeks. And then it usually takes about six weeks for the the owls to fledge the owlets. So we’ll be keeping the camera on for that whole time and then when Athena leaves in the summer, then it’ll go off until next year.