Earlier this week, scootching gently down on the eggs after dark, Shadow was calmly rearranging tiny bits of nest fluff. As he made sure each little piece was in exactly the right configuration…Jackie suddenly flew in and scared a wingslap out of him!
Even when he was off guard, focused on the fluff, he remained on high alert to protect those eggs from anything that showed up.
When he realized it was Jackie, Shadow still sat very quietly, wingspread. Jackie’s sweet twerpling and chirping seemed to calm him down enough to go back to a bit of fluff arranging. But he made no sounds at all, none of his usual argument about getting up. Apparently, Jackie had scared his voice right out of him.
It took Shadow a minute to gather himself, as Jackie very patiently moved closer. Shadow finally climbed out of the nest and up to fly off the back porch…all still without a peep. Jackie gently rolled the eggs and settled onto the nest bowl for the night.
A couple days later, Jackie may have thrown him off again—in a completely different way. This time, Shadow knew she was coming and argued loudly about her arrival being too soon. Then he tussled with her over moving the stick she brought in. Every time she tried to move it, he grabbed the stick and tugged the other way.
Maybe Shadow had a gut sense about how she planned to use that stick…because sure enough, Jackie carried that stick by him and laid it right on top of his tail.
That got Shadow up and off the nest to go put that stick into its proper location. Jackie pitched in and moved another recently arrived stick to a better place. Then as Shadow gave his full attention to making sure those sticks were behaving correctly…Jackie turned around and sneaked into the nest bowl behind him.
Shadow was so into his ‘stick mode’ that it took him a minute before he realized he’d been foiled again. He sat on the back porch, watching as Jackie continued arranging sticks from the nest bowl. Apparently deciding that he wasn’t getting the nest bowl back, Shadow flew off the back porch, leaving Jackie to her stick-arranging nest duty.
It appears that Jackie and Shadow might be starting to pull away from full-time nest duty. They have each been leaving the eggs for short periods--so far, up to 15 or 20 minutes--before either of them returns to the nest.
Thank you all for continuing to watch as we see what Jackie and Shadow will teach us next.
Sandy

Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV) https://friendsofbigbearvalley.org/
Official Facebook Page:   / fobbv  
Official Facebook Group:   / fobbv