!!! First feeding!
May 29, 2011 - Toronto - Don Mills
Mark Nash Reports:
It was an exciting day for sure!
By 8:15am this morning the telephone lines and e-mail were burning up the lines as news came in from Bruce that Quest and Kendal at the Don Mills nest site were finally parents.
We met Donna Hayes and Bruce at the Harlequin Head office around 10:30 am in the morning for a quiet celebration and to get a tale of the take as they say.
Quest could hardly stay still with the young hatchling squirming and fussing underneath her for the entire four plus hours that we were there. On two occasions throughout this same time frame, Kendal flew up to the nest tray in an effort to relieve Quest from her nest tray duties, and despite all of his efforts, he was quickly told by Quest that he was not welcomed and he was not allowed to come near the new hatchling. She did her best to conceal it from him. To say the he was very confused would be an understatement!
In an effort to keep his mate happy, Kendal was observed on at least three occasions flying by our window with fresh kills, and we watched him doing the usual prepping and placing them in the usual stash spots. But today, unlike most every day this past month, it was very obvious that was confused by his mates behaviour and he couldn’t figure out why she would not leave the nest tray and come out to the fresh food and eat.
At approx., 3:12pm, Quest started to call out to Kendal, and for the first time today, he broke the usual routine and brought one of the fresh food cache’s directly to her on the nest ledge! She very quickly jumped off her brooding activities, ran over to him and aggressively snatched it from him. She then proceeded back to her young hatchling and we witnessed the very first feeding!
I must admit, after more than 15 years of watching and documenting this same happening over and over hundreds of times at many different nest sites, I can’t remember a feeding ever taking so long,,, especially with only one day old hatchling! Also remembering that at this age - (actually less than 12 hours old), each hatchlings eats less food that it would take to fill a thimble! I should also add, that Quest dis in fact also eat during this same period and was one of the reasons that this first feeding took so long.
In addition, despite the fact that the hatchlings eyes were both still sealed closed, we watched it squiggle and squirm across one third of the nest tray to Quest while she further prepared the food. At one point, the little hatchling tumbled and rolled over onto it back unable to right itself for several minutes. Quest actually twisted her head upside down and continued to feed the little hatchling while it was on its back, even while both its legs and tiny wings were flaying in the air while trying to right itself. The little hatchling actually stopped it efforts to right itself and took several pieces of food from Quest while still flat out on its back!
I was equally as excited to finally be able to use my new camera and lens to capture some photos of the event. Its been a very long time since I have had a decent camera and lens.
By 4pm, Marion and I finally packed up and departed, satisfied that everything was playing out just as should be.
I hope that you enjoy the photos. Please remember they were taken through double pane glass and the obvious distortions are very evident. Only so much can be done to clean them up with photo shop.
Enjoy…
