Still No Chick-"Let's talk ballet & NYC

When I arrived home late Thursday I did check on the egg.  It was still there and it is still an egg. The trail cam showed that the parents are still with the egg so we will give it another week.  Any way, I thought I would switch gears and show some of our great pics from my trip to Delaware and New York City.  It was hot but we had a great time!

Friday- Lily had her dress rehearsal so Peg and I took Luke to see Guardians of the Galaxy. Good but I liked the first movie better.
Saturday- Peg and I took both kids and had lunch and tried to find a joystick for an I-Pad that Luke saw online.  No luck so we went to Byler's for an ice cream cone.  Lily had to be ready for her recital at 6.

Lily with her ballet teacher, Ms. Trisha

Showing a little attitude with friend, Caroline

Caroline, Lily & Addie

Addie photo bombs our selfie!

Sunday- We left for NYC at 10 am and arrived at our hotel, The Crowne Plaza at Time Square at 12:30.  It was too early to check in to our rooms so we had the car parked, stashed our luggage and headed out to find a place to eat.  We ended up at John's Pizzeria and had an authentic NYC "Pie"!

Great Pie!!

Lily's birthday present from me were tickets to the Broadway show, School of Rock.  It was fantastic, although pretty loud, and we were so very impressed at all the young actors who also played all their own instruments during the show.  It rocked!!

BGB's Best Grandma Buddies!

Getting ready to Rock &  Roll

Monday- we boarded the Big Bus and headed downtown Manhattan to see the One World Trade Center, the 9/11 Memorial and the Statue of Liberty.  It was a great day!  92 degrees but still a great day.

Chad found a review that said this was the best donut place in NYC.  Not so, but we ate them anyway.

Back on the Big Bus, we have ear buds to listen to the guide on the bus giving us information as we travel.  Lily changed her channel to music.

The One World Trace Center

Peg wasn't so sure about going to the top but later said she was glad she went.

The 360 degree views are fantastic

I'm so glad Luke & Lily still humor me when I want to take a picture.

After leaving the One World Observatory we stopped by the 9/11 Memorial and we saw the Survivor Tree.  We also had time to eat lunch before we caught the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty.

9/11 Memorial

The Survivor Tree

Lunch at O'Harra's

Mirror photo

Trinity Church not far from where the Twin Towers were.  I believe this was a staging area for first responders.

"Fearless Girl" on Wall Street

Being "Bullish" with "Charging Bull".  There was a line for photos at both ends.

Next stop is the Statue of Liberty.  We have tickets to go inside the Pedestal.  No crown tickets were available until end of August.

On the ferry, Miss Ellis

One of my favorite selfies. It is also why we were late for the ferry to leave the island. But we were having so much fun!!

Luke took this and told me that Lady Liberty had a booger on her nose!

Tuesday- In the morning we went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.  The kids wanted their picture taken next to every figure until Trish reminded us that we only had an hour and a half before we had to be uptown for our appointment at the American Museum of Natural History.  The highlight of Madame Tussaud's was the Ghost Buster's virtual reality exhibit.  It was awesome!!

Lily face to face with Kim Kardashian

Swooning over Morgan Freeman

Walking Albert through the theory of relativity!

"I ain't afraid of no ghosts!"

to be continued..........

Lots of Egg Turning-June 4-6

Fun Fact #3
Vultures have relatively weak legs and feet with blunt talons, though they do have powerful bills.  If a carcass is too stiff for them to rip open, they will wait for another predator to open the flesh before they feed.  This is why vultures are often seen with other carrion-eating animals.

Amelia impatiently waiting for me to leave the area.
 If you click on this photo you can see the blunt talons and her wicked beak

I can't tell if Amelia is bored, sleepy or really upset with me!

On my last memory card switch I put in a new 32 GB card.  Since I am going to be gone for nearly a week to visit Trish for Lily's ballet recital and visit NYC I wanted to make sure there was enough memory just in case the egg hatches.  I did notice today as I logged in all of the photos from Sunday until today that there was a lot of egg turning last night and both adults were checking out the egg with a great deal of interest. Or I could be reading more into their behaviors and it could mean nothing. Tomorrow will be 34 days but documented incubation is thought to be 34-41 days so it could hatch as late as next Wednesday.

Orville checks in this morning at 7:21

And I do believe he gives her a little peck before he takes off a minute later!

3 hours later and Orville is back.

This is a behavior that I had not seen.
 It looks as though both the adults are turning or checking out the eggs

7 minutes later, Orville is gone and she seems to be settling back onto the eggs. 

I plan to wait until late Thursday to change out the memory card.  I don't like to disturb the female especially with the raccoon so close.  Every time the egg is left unguarded it provides opportunity for the raccoon to snatch an easy meal.

Turkey Vulture Watch- Day 30 "Still No Chick"

No chick, but Amelia has managed to keep her remaining egg safe from, what I now know with much certainly, is a female raccoon.  How do I know it is a female you ask?  Because today, as I was switching out the memory card in the trail cam I heard a strange squeaking noise.  After climbing into the rafters and searching above for several hiding places I followed the noise on the floor but to a very difficult place to get a good visual.  We have several doors, as in 5-8 leaning against one another at the end of the barn wall.  Behind the very first door I could barely make out Mom and several very young babies, probably a day or two old, tucked into a very tight area.  It was so tight that I couldn't even get my camera lens in to get a picture.  Probably just as well as I'm sure mom was not very happy that I located her noisy brood.  I am not very happy about this new twist for two reasons.  I feel it may jeopardize the vulture chick's chance of survival and it pretty much assures that after planting and weeding our garden, I will not be getting any sweet corn again this year!  I've already replanted my green beans because of our pesky little ground hog.  I guess that is the price you pay for living in the country.

Fun Fact #2
There are 23 species of vultures world wide.  Vulture species are divided into two groups:
     1)  New World (The Americas and the Caribbeans)
     2)  Old World (Europe, Asia and Africa)
New World vultures are more closely related to Storks than raptors.

You will notice, or maybe not, that I changed the position of trail cam again.  Since we are nearing the end of the incubation period I thought it would be a good idea to move farther away from the nest so I won't be quite as intrusive.  I'm glad I did and I think the new angle picks up more of their movements, especially at night.

These first two photos were the closer camera position

I moved the camera back a little closer to the stairs but farther from the nest.

For some reason I had very few nesting photos from the other angle.  So I guess closer isn't always better.

Momma raccoon, I shall hence forth call her Bandita.  Out at 2:30 am.

Back at 4:30 am.

Amelia is sitting tight.

Time to turn that egg!