Babies! Yay

[malfunctional]

Exciting stuff! Yesterday Mom laid an egg.

After following Siam Sam’s exciting posts I thought I’d have to start my own.

About two weeks ago Mom and Dad started hanging out a lot more on my balcony. Dad would sit in the flower pot and coo away waiting for Mom to join him. Dad also started chasing his children away quite vigorously (the two from the first batch on my balcony in January).

On Sunday Dad started bringing twigs, lots of twigs and they would spend a couple of hours in the pot each morning here. It was actually quite funny, Dad would climb in the pot, almost bury his head in the sand and then coo away. Mom would eventually come and join him, but with there not being much space she usually ended up sitting on his head. He didn’t seem to mind at all, actually quite liking it. He would continue to coo away with his wing tips fluttering.

On Tuesday it was raining before they got here in the morning and their nest was getting a little wet. I was starting to get concerned, but pretty soon Mom and Dad arrived and seemed quite happy on the nest. It wasn’t too wet. Dad began fetching twigs like crazy. He seemed to be doing a little dance to go with it. He would bring a twig, jump into the pot and hand it to Mom, and then maneuver his way out and fly off to get the next twig. Mom in the mean time would work out where to put it before the next one arrived.

The same story happened on Wednesday. The nest seemed to be ready mid morning as they stopped building and just hung out in the nest. Then at about 4:30pm Bangers arrived for some food. He is one of the kids from the January batch and he’s currently on nest duty. He was obviously returning from the day shift and hungry. A few minutes later Mom and Dad arrived and Dad chased Bangers away. Mom and Dad had a quick snack before Mom climbed on the nest and Dad climbed up on the balcony to keep watch. I have a nice set up where I can see them in their nest through the reflection in a mirror and they can’t see me, so I don’t disturb them. Mom was fidgeting around in the nest, moving a couple of twigs that were bothering her around and generally just getting comfortable. Dad was keeping guard, which meant chasing Bangers away a few times as he created a nuisance of himself.

Then labour started. It didn’t seem to last too long. Mom sat quite still and just shook a little as she eased the egg out I guess. That was around 5:30. At 5:45 she stood up a little and I could see the egg. Dad waited around a for another 30 minutes or so until it started getting dark before he disappeared for the night. Exciting stuff. It was just as I’ve read on the site. They waited until late afternoon to lay the egg and with Dad looking over Mom as she lays they egg. So cute!

Mom stayed on the egg over night, although each time I looked she didn’t seem to be sitting on it, but more standing over it as in the picture. I’m not sure what that’s about. This morning she left her egg alone for about 5 minutes just after day break allowing me a nest photo. Maybe it doesn’t need to be sat on all the time until the next one arrives. Bangers arrived for a quick breakfast while Mom was on the nest. Dad was obviously checking up on her from nearby because he arrived out of nowhere in a split second to chase Bangers away, kept guard for a few minutes and was off again.

I wasn’t here to check up on them during the day, but all seems fine this evening. Mom is still on the nest. There is still only one egg. The next one should be here tomorrow. I’ll keep an eye out.

Here is a pic of proud Mom on her egg and the nest in those 5 minutes she was away. Now I have to come up with some names for the squabs.