| Ward continued his food deliveries until
7am this rainy morning, and revealed the reason for all of June's
complaining. While he delivered four meals in less than one hour, all of
them combined were not big enough to add up to a single mouse. He made
each of these deliveries without a single hoot, which is in sharp contrast
to the loud monkey calls that accompany more substantial deliveries. June
was also much more reserved in her responses, with little squealing and no
letup in her whines for more food. Ward is shown here making a rapid
departure after delivering the very small snake that June is pulling
through the door in the lower picture. It appears to be a Ring-Necked
snake, which is common in their territory but provides only a small
fraction of the nutritional value of the much larger garter snake she
enjoyed yesterday. I have yet to see him deliver one of the Short-Tailed
Shrews that were his most popular daytime catch last year.
It has now been fourteen days since June laid her second egg and started full-time incubation on April 1st. This means that she should be about half way through her incubation period which took 27 days in 1998, and 28 days in both 2000, and 2001. Let's hope that Ward starts bringing home more substantial prey before the eggs hatch as I doubt that he could make enough trips to satisfy a family with such meager offerings as this. |
|
|
|
Back To: April Calendar
