Back to One Chick
Today promised to be busy. The woman I will be replacing is leaving Friday and I need to learn EVERYTHING I can from her by then. With that in mind, I got up extra early so I could check on the remaining MCC chick and walk the area to see if the other chick was down.
The lone MCC chick was still on the ledge. It paced up and back, flaring its wings and flapping furiously. I think it will fledge any time now – looks like it is plenty strong. A walk of the area yielded nothing in the way of a downed chick. Phew! I hope Chick One is just fine!
I got into work at 8am and Mary Beth immediately started training me on microptics, which was a TON of fun. I love cameras and this is a whole heck of a lot of camera. I got my first experience working with the tiny, gnat-sized Bat Fly. Man, I’m going to have to work to switch gears from handling bird-sized things to barely-visible-to-the-eye type things. I kept feeling like I was going to crush the little guys with my tweezers! I didn’t, thank God.
At 12:30am, I took a ten minute break and checked email. Dan Cozza had written to say he’d gone over to check on the MCC during his lunch. Chick #2 was still on the ledge. Herc and Max were nowhere to be found. Chick #1 was gone still. On my way back to Mary Beth’s office, I popped in on Mary. She said that Max and Herc being gone might be a good thing because it might mean they were off tending to Chick #1 somewhere.
After work, I went by the MCC and did my usual circuit of the neighborhood. I had my pet carrier along, just in case. Chick #2 was on the ledge snoozing. I checked all the usual perches for Herc and Max, but they were vacant. I did noticed that there was a new pile of feathers on the nesting ledge near Chick #2. While I watched, it woke up and picked at it. So, Herc and Max are being good parents and bringing it food, of course.
Still no sign of Chick #1.
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