Friday, Jan 22 - Still incubating 8 AM

[NewMexiKen]

Mary Lou and I  arrived a little before 8 AM and observed about 45 minutes. It was very cloudy and foggy. Since today marks the presumed 35th day of incubation and is the estimated hatch date, we wanted to see if there were any behavioral changes that might suggest that an egg has hatched.

The male was roosting in the melaleucas to the west the entire time. He was farther away than usual, but after about 20 minutes moved to a perch nearer Pines Blvd. Despite the poor light and fog, I was able to confirm that it was the male by photographing his brown-tipped right outer tail feather:



The female was on the nest the entire time, usually sitting far down. She was actually out of sight for the first 5 minutes after we arrived, and we thought she was not there. At first, she faced to the right:



At about 8:20, she stood up on the left edge of the nest, facing away toward the south, and flapped her wings a few times:



She then went back to the center of the nest and gradually settled down, facing away from us:



I would conclude that the first egg has not yet hatched, as there was no unusual behavior, and the female was sitting down very low in the nest.

A small flock of Cedar Waxwings flew into one of the trees along the power lines just to the left of the nest. This is a black and white rendition.



Of interest, a flock of about 25-30 waxwings flew over the nest on January 19th. I had to identify them by size, flight pattern and shape. The light was so poor that only a bit of color can be seen. This is a cropped view of one Cedar Waxwing: