Feeding Frenzy

Today was hot and windy and the chicks were playing "dead" again, sleeping tucked up in any piece of shade this morning and then wherever they could be out of the wind this afternoon. A little spit of rain late this afternoon barely woke them up. However, when Princess arrived with food in the early evening, all three chicks were waiting for her and one of the chicks literally grabbed the food and ran - right back into the nest tray! Amazing to think that 7 days ago the chicks only barely managed to get out of the nest-tray by crawling over each other and using wings, feet and crops to throw them over the edge of the bin. Watching the chick this evening, it was more like a watching a hurdler so easily did s/he go up and over! And then they turned around and hopped back out, just like that. Princess managed to grab much of the food back but after so much tugging it broke into two pieces and both were snapped up immediately again. At this point Princess just stared at her voracious children like they were strangers. She then turned around and left ledge. The chicks worked their way up to the north corner of the ledge (where the eggs were laid originally) to get out of the rising wind and dropped to the gravel to nap yet again. A short time later, both Princess and Trey dropped onto the ledge with food and between the two of them managed to stuff their greedy little children with the last meal of the evening. Usually, only one adult feeds at a time, and this year, Princess has been taking control of most of the meals. In recent days however, she has been allowing Trey to help out more and I thought it was because the chicks are much more capable of taking care of themselves on the nestledge. Now I think its been a case of just trying to keep up with their childrens' appetites. Trey and Princess have been splitting the meals into two courses, Princess first, then Trey a few minutes after she finishes and leaves. This evening was the first time I have ever seen both of them feeding chicks at the nestsite. After the chicks fledge, it is not unusual to see the parents feeding chicks at different locations at the same time, but I haven't seen them feed pre-banding age chicks at the same time within inches of each other. It probably also explains why Trey has been harder to see over the last week, he's had to hunt and cache food like crazy in order to keep up with their kids' demands!