Chick Overboard!

Late this morning the female anticipated a food delivery and excitedly moved out of the nest cup and up to the hole.

The trouble was, at the same time she unknowingly dragged a chick out at the same time:

The next few minutes were a little agonising to watch, as the helpless chick received no real assistance from the female, although she knew it was there.

She offered it food and gave it a few pecks (as if to try and pick it up) but returned to the nest cup with the little one in full view in front of her:

Eventually after about 4 minutes it somehow found its way back to mum, and incredibly she just lay there and watched it move towards her:

... Some Mothers!

The chick goes overboard and returns without assistance.

By 12 noon, nearly 24 hours after the first hatched, six eggs still remained:

Chick Number 3
Not more than 4 minutes after the pictures above, the male did it again!

He was standing over the nest with food, and before his eyes the third egg started to crack open:

Whether he noticed or not is subject to debate, but he gave a quick chirp and up popped two beaks, with the egg still gently opening and closing:

Mum came back and immediately sorted the newborn, removing and eating one half of the shell:

Once the first half was finished, she promptly decided to have a second course of egg:

You would have thought that there is probably only so much shell she can eat, so at some stage she may well start to remove them from the box.

Egg number three hatches in front of the male, mum eats the shell and then the male returns with more food for the family.

At 3.00pm on day two, five more eggs remain and will hopefully hatch:

It's been 26 hours since the first, so that's an average of one every 8.6 hours - this could take a while!