May 10, 2008 - A milestone already!

These hatching's are growing fast! They have a little bit more fluff, their skin is less red and they seem to be moving a bit more. Today, they graduated from regurgitated food to small worms and grubs. I'm sure Mama is relieved about that! She has been working hard at keeping the babies fed and the regurgitation did not look comfortable. I have only seen Big Daddy feed them once, so he hasn't been much help in that area. The third egg still hasn't hatched. Tomorrow is it's "due date" so hopefully it will hatch on time. If not, I'm afraid it might be too small and young to compete with it's siblings who have already moved up to solid foods.

Big Mama with a mouth full of food for her babies.

I have yet to clearly see her feed the babies, never mind photograph it. I caught her a few times in the middle of feeding but wasn't able to see through the holly leaves. Mama is very leery of me and my camera now that the babies have hatched. If she is gathering food, she just doesn't want to come back to her nest when my big head and camera are in the window watching her. I eventually have to leave so her poor kids don't go hungry.

I hope I can photograph the feeding more when Lucy's kids arrive. Although, she spends a ton of time away from her nest so I don't know how successful this clutch is going to be. Luckily the rain stopped and it warmed up a bit. Hopefully this kept her eggs warm while she was gone.

Quite a few people have told me I should name the babies. Any suggestions? Leave a comment with your ideas here.