05-23-2022 The chicks were banded today

The three chicks met the DNR Wildlife Biologists this morning despite Rebecca’s physical and very vocal protest.  The parents are very protective, which make them great parents.  But not so gracious as hosts.  Rebecca did her best to thwart the process by first grabbing the nest box cover then dive bombing the biologists who employed an umbrella for safety while they removed the chicks from the nest box.  She did settle down eventually and watched the banding in between diving runs.  The biologists determined that there are two males and one female this year.  The two smaller chicks are males and the largest is the female.  They were all pretty tired after the morning excitement and took a long nap.  And, we now have a clean camera lens, at least for the time being.