Another long day….why can’t I be less curious, less worried? I stopped to check the orphan and her benefactor at a little after 7 this morning. No one home. But after about an hour the chick showed up briefly….and then she took off. No male seen. So I waited for several hours, again searched some nearby lakes. About 10 am the male showed up with a large fish….carp? He nibbled, looked around, waited, nibbled some more…..he was there for 90 minutes and had not finished the fish. He was clearly saving some for the chick….but she didn’t show up. By 11:30 I decided I needed to check a few other nests so I left for about two hours….had a mix of good news, bad news at those nests….some missing chicks showed up for me and one nest had two adults and no chicks. Hmmmm. I finally made it back to our orphan chicks nest. No one home. Shortly after I returned tho the chick came crying to the nest, followed by the male with a fish….but I didn’t have my scope focused and my phone ready….so I missed the delivery but got some fuzzy photos of the two on the nest. Then, as I tried to refocus the scope, they both flew off! And I missed where they went. I found the male pretty quickly on a nearby building where I had never seen him perch before….tho it’s a spot that Mom used to perch on. I lost the chick. I searched for two hours and could not find the chick. But interestingly, the male stayed put in his spot for TWO hours. That’s unusual for him….I was getting tired of waiting for the chick so left to go to Walgreens for something to sooth a bug bite that was itching like mad. Then I thought I should return to check one more time…..the male was gone and the chick was in the nest! I stayed for another hour….as the chick went from one spot to another, then back to the nest. She also was waiting around longer than usual for a fish delivery. I wonder if they are starting to realize that they each need to stick around more to be able to connect. But after an hour…and close to 5 pm, after arriving at 7:15 am….I needed to head home. It was hard to leave cause I expected a fish delivery soon….but I at least know the chick got one fish today and I suspect dinner was on the way.
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