This time Diamond’s efforts went unobserved by Xavier, who is hopefully off hunting, but of course, Diamond’s fans world wide wish her well. She was straining for quite a well, so I imagine it’s a quite a relief when the whole process is over. Could she have three, four even (that would be a first for this nest site)?
For once I captured the images as they happened.
What time was it?
Sorry, time was 1533 h ie just after half past 3 pm. Skies are clear today, with chilly wind.
Hi all, the welcome event was @ 06:33 UK time & very fortunately before the IR light went out again … my vid here
https://youtu.be/7DmsMK70AKc
I often find it difficult to tell the two apart unless I see them together – but was Xavier doing a spot of egg-sitting earlier this morning (29th)? As the quality of the light changes throughout the day, I wasn’t sure whether the bright orange cere was a trick of the light, or the lovely Xavier. This is all very exciting, but what will happen re the night-light? I have visions of Scott huddled outside the tower for hours on end while Cilla sits at the monitor to let him know when the birds have ducked out!
Mating again at 07:51！I hope we will see the egg No.3 tomorrow morning because it’s dark inside the box at night.
Xavier has really been pulling his weight and during the day has been doing at least half if not more of the incubating. Considering he wouldn’t go near the eggs or chicks last year, this is quite a turn around, but of course they are HIS this year (and isn’t he pleased to show off his talents at regular intervals!).
He is nearly a third smaller than Diamond. I regularly use a ruler to check length and width against the dimensions of the box to be sure I have the right bird as they often switch so quickly that i miss it (and with the light out again, it can be really difficult when they swap in the early morning gloom). It’s really annoying me, too, as I can’t tell what Diamond is actually doing in the night (or if she’s there at all sometimes).
Hopefully the light will be back up by the weekend, but unfortunately I can’t help Scott as I’m off to a conference in Brisbane tomorrow morning early (terrible timing, I know). I have a volunteer helping with the data recording, but he won’t be updating the website, so it will be a bit quiet over the next few days. I’ll be back today week.
If egg number three arrives before I have to leave this afternoon, I’ll put up a video. If it comes tonight, well too bad, I’m afraid.
Just to add – I expect Xavier’s efforts to tail off if we get three or more eggs as he is just too little to cover a large brood.
It’s been really interesting, even so far at the egg-sitting stage, to see the change in Xavier. What a star that crazy boy is turning out to be! I managed to catch one of the changeovers as it happened yesterday afternoon, so now I feel a bit more confident about who’s who on the eggs. X really IS little, isn’t he?
Hope the conference goes well – hoping there will be light when you get back!
Have been recording in the daylight & captured these actions … https://youtu.be/QzR6YjmpdUQ
THREE EGGS
She resettled about 6.12am and you could see the three.
Yippeeeeee!
6.43:50 Uninterrupted view of the eggs!!
Thanks for that info Deborah … had set recording for just before first light & was rewarded with first reveal of THREE eggs as Diamond left @ 05:39 & Xavier took over, didn’t he manage well?
https://youtu.be/hyZOzhW_H60
Good news re third egg (Cilla in Brisbane). Thanks for the youtube