Bea wrote:
Oh, how sad ..... is it known of what reason?
Hi Bea,
The true reason really isn't known but it is suspected these were 1st time parents. However, when the first chick hatched, the mother would not feed it and it was a large, healthy and very strong chick that begged for fish non-stop. We watched the mother stand there and eat 2 fish in front of the begging chick and nightfall came. The chick was not fed the 1st day. In the mean time, after the female ate the first fish, she decided to rearrange sticks on the nest and in doing so, trampled the chick a time or two but dropped a huge, heavy stick on it, twice! I believe she trampled it at that same time.
The next morning at daylight, we could see the 2nd egg had hatched, already. Now there were 2 chicks. The maie didn't pay much attention to them and the mother mostly looked at them like she wasn't quite sure what they were. That's my opinion. But she did start feeding. She seemed impatient and held large pieces of fish about 6 inches in front of the chicks. If they didn't or weren't able to grab it from that distance, she just kept eating the fish, herself, then finished and laid back down on the chicks.
I have video if you wish to see.
The 1st chick to die, did so, when I was away from the computer. I caught the 2nd death on video early Sunday morning. Daylight came and you could see the chick was in grave danger. The mother just stood there eating fish, then walked over to the chick and picked it up and tossed it to the side of the nest, upside down with it's head down in the nest bowl and legs and body on the rim. It stayed that way until it perished.
There was a 3rd egg which didn't hatch, thankfully. The last time I looked in on that cam, the female was brooding the egg. It's too late for that egg, thank goodness!