Sorry for the absence, but I've been a little busy and honestly, the bird babies are growing so fast, that I can barely keep up anyway. I am amazed. The babies are now the cutest things I have ever seen. It's almost like they have individual personalities.
Hamish is definitely the most confident of the group and the most advanced. I vote him "most likely to succeed". He was the first to start preening and stretching his wings. He was happy to discover the wonderful stretchy thing he could do with his wings. They all have full feathers and their eyes have been open for four days or so.
Schmiegal is the smallest, the last one hatched and is the "little runt that could". He is getting there, slowly but surely. He seems to stay at the bottom of the "pile" and gets stepped on a lot. Mom and Dad have a hard time fitting in the house and try to straddle the nest as much as possible. Mom sits off to the side at night and the babies all nestle around her. Schmiegal likes to perch his chin on her tail. They tend to stay at certain spots for most of their time. I identify them using a "hands-of-the-clock" method. Schmiegal is almost always at 6:00 and Hamish stays at 2 or 3:00 or right on top in the center. Two are markedly smaller than the other three, but they all seem to be doing well.
Interestingly, Mom seems to know when one has just been fed by Dad. I watched her start to shove a cricket down Abe's throat only to (PSYCHE!) pull it back out and give it to Don!
Well, their tails need to grow a bit more before they can successfully fledge, but I think it's soon. I am putting the possible fledge date at May 11. At the rate that they are scarfing down mealworms (provided by yours truly) and growing it could be sooner.
I also have learned that they should not be fed earthworms. If the babies eat earthworms, they can get extreme diarrhea and dehydrate and starve. Mealworms only, please! They love them, too!
Well, I hope to post a picture tomorrow! Moving right along.......
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