Well, only two of the four eggs hatch and the two babies are getting big and fat. This brood was by far the strangest I've ever monitored. Mom spent a good deal of incubation time with her nose out the hole of the box....something I never encountered before. I wonder if the heat caused this and thus had to do with the eggs that didn't hatch.
The two seem quite content and it definitely makes a difference in behavior when mom and dad only need to provide enough for two. Well fed babies are boring. I peak every day but they don't do anything. When the brood is larger, there is always at least one who gapes or peeps looking for food any time you get near the nest box. These two are asleep every day that I have checked, mostly because I check after I see Mom do a feeding in the morning. I pause for a minute to make sure they are breathing....but I know they are active at some point because their positions change ever so slightly each day. There also isn't the constant back and forth of mom and dad entering the box to feed and again to clean up. Not as good as the original 2010 brood, but still rewarding. Hard to believe it is already Live Day 11. Two more days and no more peaking. Just will wait and use the binoculars to try and approximate when fledge day will be. I've yet to see the birds hop out...maybe this time!
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