Yesterday, I went to WAMU in Seattle and took the elevator up to the 56th floor. We have a special "operational area" set up there by our friends at Wright Runstad within a large maintenance and storage room.
They have kindly provided a table and chairs where we usually place the Internet connection equipment, a TV monitor, zoom and focus controls and a phone each year. In the corner of this room, there is a small locked door leading through the exterior wall and out into a "tunnel" about 30' long. The tunnel is formed by a large steel frame that supports the exterior stone slabs of the building. We crawl inside this convenient tunnel to the camera. The custom mount is installed at the end of this tunnel, protected from the weather. Many years ago, we were allowed to drill a "viewing port" 4 inches in diameter through the stone fascia. This port provides a "window" onto the outer ledge where we placed the nest box.
Now that there are eggs in the box, Mark Prostor and I had decided to zoom the camera in further so we could all see more details in the nest. As we talked on the phone, I zoomed the camera in to the correct distance while he advised me on the dimensions shown online. The image you see on the web is slightly different in dimension than what we see on the building monitor so we had to get this right. After zooming, we had to change the focus. Once that was completed, I went down the tunnel to re-align the camera.
So that is why you are all seeing a different image today.
You may have noticed that the adults are pretty much on the eggs all the time now. That is normal behavior as the number of eggs increase. They should now be actively engaged in incubation duties for the next 33-35 days or so. It is never certain precisely how long they will incubate as it is more of an art than science.
Because the birds are on the eggs farily constantly, I have not had the time to see if there is now a third egg or not. If you are reading this blog and have seen a thrid egg, please drop me a line at bud@frg.org.
The fourth egg is due tomorrow.
