There is nothing like a few inches of fresh snow to get Jackie and Shadow in gear about getting the nest ready…or maybe there was an early Black Friday sale at the ‘Stick Depot’… or maybe Shadow read our previous post about him being way behind Jackie in stick deliveries. Whatever the reason, on Saturday’s snowy morning, Shadow more than doubled the number of sticks he’s brought for the season! And Jackie upped her game even more by bringing almost twice as many as Shadow.
Jackie brought the first delivery of the morning, plopping her big stick right across that snowy nest. Shadow was right behind with his own solid specimen to top the snow. After they each worked pulling a few buried sticks to the surface, Shadow waited while Jackie went for another stick…then, after a little joint tugging about where that stick belonged, Jackie waited while Shadow went for another stick…and he brought a big one!
After a lot of banging himself into Jackie as he tried to get that stick to the right spot, Shadow left again. Maybe he was trying to pull ahead—or at least catch up—Shadow brought two more sticks in a row while Jackie stuck around to help with the arrangements.
In the midst of all that, Jackie laid down to try out the nest bowl and evaluate how things were coming along ('pancaking')…then they both went back to work…Shadow with another stick…then Jackie with another stick…then they both left and each brought back a new stick.
Shadow’s last stick had them both working hard—first, Shadow caught Jackie’s toenail on the stick, then when that released Shadow moved forward with it only to be surprised when Jackie pulled it right out from under him. He couldn’t figure out where that stick went until Jackie almost hit him in the head with it bringing it back to his side of the nest.
Even though Shadow had had enough for the morning, Jackie left and returned with two more sticks deliveries…and that 2nd one must have been misbehaving since it created a bit of a wonky landing for her.
But that wasn’t enough—they were both back in the afternoon. While Shadow worked on the nest, Jackie fetched another stick…and Shadow had to give her a few little wing nibbles, as thank you…or maybe for showing off and bringing so many more sticks than him. In any case, those nibbles turned into some quicky beaky kisses for our loving couple.
Shadow watched as Jackie brought in yet another stick…and gave her a sweet head nibble when she checked out the nest bowl again. And some more beaky kisses ensued in between stick deliveries and keeping an eye on the local ravens passing by.
Jackie had one more stick delivery and one more quick pancaking in the nest bowl before they both called it a day. They had each accomplished a lot—so please don’t tell Shadow that Jackie pulled even further ahead of him on the stick delivery count. He worked hard, too, and they probably both went to sleep feeling satisfied with their day of sticks.
Sandy
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