The chicks hatch
May 5th, 2010 by Chris
Turning the telly on this morning we saw a single chick in the nest. By the time I got home from work there were five. Or at least I think there were. They’re kind of difficult to count—but there were still three eggs of the eight left unhatched.
It’s later than we’ve had before, by a small margin. Last year they hatched on April 29, whilst in 2008 it was May 4. They’ve always managed to hatch whilst the recorder has been off before, but this year we recorded most of the day. So here’s some highlights.
We start off with one of the parents apparently eating the shell of a newly hatched chicks. Later one poor soul gets his head stuck in a shell for a good long while. This is seriously edited—he must have been left the shell on his head for a good eight minutes or so! There are four hatchings in here altogether, so it’s over 10 minutes of video.