Today is Pedro and Marty’s hatch day, but it didn’t happen. That’s not anything to worry about… yet. If you want to worry, then worry about Goldie & Lindsey Buckingham, because they were supposed to hatch the first chicks in New Jersey last Sunday, and that still hasn’t happened either (as of this afternoon.) Most likely, the chicks are just a little late because it’s been such a cold spring. That’s what we’re all hoping anyway!
As much as I’m looking forward to Goldie’s hatch, I really hope they weren’t hatching this evening.
Tonight the front rolled in that’s going to ruin Memorial Day weekend plans for you, if you planned on visiting the shore. I happened to be checking on Pedro’s hatch status just as the storm was about to hit, and caught this short moment that I’ve seen a few times before since we started using the cameras.
Here you can see Pedro sense he is about to get destroyed by sand-blasting winds; you’ll hear him suddenly start peeping, perhaps as a warning to Marty and the others, and then quickly try to get the eggs just right before he has to hunker down and just take it until it’s over. It’s the piping-plover-on-eggs equivalent of chucking your beach chair and running up the dune as fast you can when you see the first lightening strike, and it’s a little too close for comfort.
Anyway, people often ask “what do they do during storms?” and this is a pretty good view of it; about as good as you could hope to get! We also pop by a couple of the other nests to see how everyone is holding up.
I’m just so glad the chicks were not hatching on schedule as this would been a lot more difficult for poor Pedro, and those poor chicks. This is going to be an awful weekend for anyone to get their first taste of LBI, bird or otherwise!
Say something kind