Diamond has finally produced her first egg, with some gentle straining over the last two days and with lots of encouragement from Xavier, who kept coming to look at the empty scrape!
And here is Xavier’s first look at the egg and some downtime with his Missus:
Expect another egg or two over the next day or so. Usually they are spaced a day or two apart. Also the female does not normally incubate the first eggs until they have all been lain, but I’ve noticed that Diamond often ignores that ‘convention’ (designed so that they all hatch at the same time and are easier to manage because they are all the same size).
And poor old girl, little more than hour after laying an egg, Xavier is trying to mate again.
https://www.youtube.com/upload_thumbnail?v=FY9Nu1IiBoA&t=hqdefault&ts=1566971968115
Finally ! And in daylight. Xavier is as pleased as we are. Thanks, Cilla !
A beautiful first egg!!
Nice videos, Cilla!
Wheeeeeee! So exciting, and in daylight too. I suspected the egg was very close when Xavier brought in a small morsel of prey at about 1.15pm. Diamond took the prey from him but stayed in the box with it. We joked that perhaps she was afraid she might lay the egg in midair 😉