Alaskan snowy owls have a brood of six fluffy chicks and only eight weeks in which to raise them. The parents provide them with thirty lemmings a day. For the chicks will need to triple their weight before they reach independence. But this morning, the female returns to an empty nest. The chicks are nowhere to be seen. They’re hiding. They’re so big, the whole group might be spotted by predators, so they have scattered across the tundra. But that makes feeding them all much harder work. Over 600 meals later, the parents labours are starting to pay off, as the chicks stretch their newly developed wings. Just a month is left before winter returns. Two weeks more, and their transformation is almost complete. The chicks wings might at last be able to do more than just lift them from the ground. Getting there… keep going… airborne. The youngsters are ready for independence. And the exhausted parents can take a well-earned rest.
