First chick of the season!

Well yesterday and today, I saw and confirmed my first little murre chick of the season. Oh I wish I could get a picture of it for you, but seriously...I'm SOOO far away from my rock. I struggle to see it through the high powered Questar. O'well. I'll have to admire these babies from afar. This is the week that most, if not all, eggs should be hatching. And because of that, the birds behavior's are so bizarre and weird...making my job way more difficult. Challenge accepted! haha. I can't wait till the chicks get to be big enough to thermo-regulate themselves. How exciting! Have I told you guys how these babies fledge? Probably not. It's quite unique actually. The female leaves before the babies fledge, leaving them with the male. The father pushes their young off of the rock (whoa!) and into the ocean. He teaches them to swim and how to protect themselves as they travel farther north for the winter. They actually don't know how to fly for quite some time. Isn't that amazing? It's usually the mother that takes care of the young, but in this case, not so. During incubation, hatching, and before they fledge, the male and female take turns taking care of the young. Kind of neat. They don't call these birds seabirds for nothing. Can you imagine pushing your baby off of a high rock into the freezing ocean? LOL NO! Of course not, just saying...this is such a crazy thought to me even though I realize, it's what they are made for. I hope I get to witness it, even though, I know my stomach will probably lurch at the sight of it. No...don't fall! haha.

I got a very sweet package from my friend/co-worker Debby today. Debby-Lou-Who, you are wonderful! Thank you so much! I love the stamp! I want to stamp everything I own with it! Here's a picture of the stamp she sent me..

Isn't this the cutest stamp ever??? Thank you Debby! I'm looking forward to the cookies too! ;-)

Oh yeah, yesterday morning, I got a visit on the beach from this guy....

Peregrine Falcon through the scope...this is the best picture I could get with the scope and my phone. 

Hope everyone is well!