Failed Nest

Today we were checking on an old nest and the adults were nowhere around. We found the scrape (nest) and it had caved in. It had been built on top of a pile of sticks covered with hummus and in the rain, the loose dirt had given way and the eggs had fallen through. Rich said he had never seen that before. We found the three eggs, which are the size of chicken eggs and a medium brown-red with darker speckles. We opened the eggs and saw the three chicks in different stages of development. One was much smaller, suggesting it had fallen through first and died, while the other two were incubated a bit longer before falling and being abandoned. It was an interesting lesson in embryonic development.