 After
a night with only one food delivery, June lost faith in Ward this morning
and went out to do her own hunting. She is shown here hunting from a perch
about 10 feet off the ground, just before giving up and returning to the
nest. She was out for 45 minutes on this attempt. Later in the day, she
made two more trips which each lasted about thirty minutes and also ended
in failure. This is the first times in all the years I've been watching
her that she has left her eggs to hunt in daylight. When she was in the
nest, she repeated a distressed
version of her whining call again and again. Notice how it differs
from the more relaxed
whining call that your heard last week. Ward redeemed himself by making
three food deliveries in the first two hours after sunset, but June
continues with her distressed whining anyway. I'm beginning to suspect
that there may not be enough prey in the territory this year after all,
but hope that Ward will somehow be able to meet the challenge. If he is
not able to meet her needs, June will be forced to abandon her eggs and
wait for next year. Let's hope that Ward's early success tonight carries
over, so that June will be able to stay with her eggs tomorrow. |