Tuesday March 26 2013 About 19:46 PM Ma And Pa White Rock flew into the nest together and then about 19:49 PM Pa White Rock Jumped on Ma White Rock and started mating and then about 19:51 PM Pa jumped down from Ma and was back on the nest. Then at 19:55 PM Pa White Rock flew off the nest

Quote by: AnniesKatz

'Evening WR Friends,

Please try not to worry too much. The egg has debris on it but appears to be intact.

I will be away for a while so I'm going to ask Judyb or another knowledgeable Admin. to come by and explain the lack of incubation and hopefully allay some of your fears.

Have a Good Night Everyone!

If Ma is going to lay another egg, and it won't surprise me if she does as they have been very busy, she is most likely cooling the first egg so the eggs hatch closer together. The weather was very warm here today and I'm actually excited to see her cooling the egg. It probably means we can expect more. By cooling the egg it slows it's development so they hatch closer together! Ma and Pa Delta2 have this down to an art! Last year their eggs layed 3 days apart both hatched within a 24 hour period!

ironeagle, I see this is your first post! Hopefully, the first of many! Welcome to the forum!

Hi everyone! Wonderful news about the first egg! As Annie and Darlene/lovethebabies have said, it's very common for adults to not incubate full time until the second egg is laid. I was watching Delta 2 during the period between their first and second egg - and almost wondered if they had forgotten they had an egg! (Though they were never far away, so the egg was protected.)

It is scary to watch now - but it will reduce stress later. As you may remember, last year the eggs that became Echo and Foxy were laid a bit over three days apart, and hatched a bit less than two days apart - which helped Foxy because he or she was closer in size and development to the first-hatched Echo. The Delta 2 pair took it a step further - their eggs were probably laid about 3 days apart - but hatched within 5 hours of each other. So while we worried this year that the first egg at Delta 2 wasn't being incubated very much during the day - we did suspect that the parents had a plan!

And I'm quite certain that the adults here also have a plan. It's probably not a good thing for eggs to be uncovered for too long when the temperature is below freezing - but I'm guessing that's not a problem at White Rock right now. And I know of eggs that have been uncovered for an hour or so when they were further along and thus more vulnerable - and they still hatched. It really is amazing how much protection is provided by the egg itself, and by a well-constructed nest bowl.

8:56pm................Thanks you Darlene and JudyB! Welcome ironeagle!

Ma on the egg.

Thank you JudyB. for the information regarding the egg. Do you think Pa is alright? He has obviously been in some kind of alteration. Some of his feathers on his left side are missing.

My guess is that Pa is fine. I'll try to look in tomorrow when it's daylight and see how they look then - but most of the time they can look rather messy but be just fine. Good night, everyone.

9:35 pm - Ma preens her brood patch, then settles over her egg


9:47 pm - Ma tips her head and sleeps