The moment we’ve all been waiting for arrived at 16:55:10 this afternoon as Jackie’s first egg of 2024 softly appeared beneath her in the nest bowl.
Jackie’s egg-laying process took only about 6 minutes from the time she stood up in the nest bowl until the moment the egg appeared. As the egg pushes through her, her back hunches up and all of her feathers stand up…and Jackie emits little teakettle sounds of the work involved in pushing the egg through.
A closeup of the egg shows its beautiful white oval perfection. A few spots on the egg show areas that have probably not dried out yet from coming out wet. There is also sometimes tiny bits of blood on a new egg—all perfectly normal.
After recovering for a few minutes, Jackie stepped ever so gently around the egg and then rolled it for the first time, right underneath her.
In under 20 minutes from egg-laying, Shadow arrived at the nest, bringing a new stick. After scanning around the neighborhood, then noticing Jackie’s behavior, Shadow checked underneath her from in front of her, and appeared (from the cam2 view) to have seen the egg.
Jackie has now settled in on the egg, scooting it up into her brood patch, to have a well-deserved sleep for the night. Shadow will be roosting somewhere nearby and watching over the nest.
Big congratulations to Jackie and Shadow!
Sleep well, Jackie! You deserve a lovely rest after such awesome work.
Sandy
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