Third Hatched and Surprise Dinner
The third egg has hatched in Richmond. The third chick is resting and is drying out. Its older siblings were quite hungry for the first meal the male brought in for them…a bat! The youngest didn’t raise its head to eat, but given the tiring ordeal of hatching this is no surprise. While birds generally make up the bulk of a peregrine’s diet, bats are not that unusual a prey item…although this is the first time one has been documented at this nest.
In this photo you cn see the egg tooth protruding from the chicks’ bills. The egg tooth falls off shortly after hatching.
