Little Aliens

I think I am starting to understand what folks mean when they say: "They are growing so fast!" These little buggars are growing fast. As of this afternoon, one of them has opened his eyes. The little late bloomer runty one seems to have caught up to his siblings. There are already pronounced quills on some of their wings and they are chirping and moving around quite a bit. I still have to review all of the recorded discs from the days when they hatched, but here are some things I have learned so far:

• Mama and Papa eat the empty egg shells.
• Mama and Papa like to shove big, honkin', non-regurgitated bugs down their throats, such as crickets, moths and unidentified flying things.
• The babies have a built-in people sensor that triggers them to close their mouths when they hear human voices.
• Somehow they know when a bird other than their parents is on the house.

It's pretty amazing that when something lands on the house and they hear the sound, they all stick their heads straight up with their mouths open. When they hear that bird call or sing, they close their mouths. Mama still sits on them at night to keep them warm. Last night was cooler than it has been and she stayed on them most of the night. I also saw her eat some egg shell this afternoon, so I guess she is still finding some as the babies move around.

I had a request for a name for one of them, but I think I have the rest covered. Of course it's too early to tell if they are make or femal, but since they were bald and their dark, feathered eyeballs look like bushy eyebrows, I am going to name one Abe, one Hamish, one Shmeigal (after the dude from LOTR) one Don (after Don King) because now they all have little fuzzy afros, and one Himey (the request). Abe is in honor of the guy from "Barney Miller", Shmeigal is because they kind of look like Gollum from LOTR and Hamish just came to mind for no apparent reason.

For the first time I am seeing their entire nodies today. One of them who is quite assertive is climbing on top and he is fairly bald except for a line of fuzz down his back. I put out some big fatty mealworms and a couple of night crawlers in my feeder. I had to buy them at a gun/tackle shop. Lovely. But they are the biggest darn mealworms I have ever seen. I just hope mom and pops find them and enjoy. It doesn't seem that there is a shortage for crispy critters, but I thhought I would help them out and try to make their lives easier.

Mom just came back with something and it looked like she was trying to spread the wealth among them. She does appear to be regurgitating now. She also scooched down on them, as if she was trying to get them warm and set for a nap. I guess she's a little beat. She just took out some extra eggshell . I think she was trying to get underneath them to clean up the rest of the mess, unless it was doody. Hard to say. She carried it out, though, so my thinking is it was a big turd. Nice. At least she's tidy. Imagine having to carry your baby's turds away in your mouth? Time for some research!!

I decided to take a picture of the TV with the camera so I could post. Hope you all can make it out!