Bermuda!

We arrived safe and sound yesterday about noon after 8 days at sea. No storms or major issues. We sighted land at 5am after 6 days with nothing but water all around us. It is gorgeous here and we are enjoying getting cleaned up and r&r. Internet cafes are nonexistent and the whole island is on a national holiday through tomorrow so connectivity has been frustratingly lacking. I will fly home in the next day or two. More to come with pics when I return.

Castoff

About ready to cast off for the dock. Should be about 5-7 days till Bermuda. No wind yet but should pickup offshore.

Baby birds! v2.0

The nest has progressed well and we had our first chicks hatch two weeks from the day the first egg was laid. Two chicks were out by 10AM and the parents were pretty excited. The following day the third chick was born. We have kept waiting for the 4th egg to hatch but it looks like it was a dud. The three chicks have grown rapidly and both parents have been very busy feeding them. They are super cute and want to be fed constantly. I managed to get some decent pictures of the feeding, so without further ado here are the pics. Note the ridiculous development between day 17 and day 19:

More pictures are here. I'll keep taking pics as long as they stay in the nest (should be 2 weeks from hatching).

More bird neighbors

We had robins try to build a nest by our juliet balcony back in April but shoed them away due to imminent door replacement construction. With the wrens fledged and gone we thought we were done with bird excitement for the season. Wrong.The robins came back and built their nest in a day. It was fun to watch them use the very corner of the balcony for their nest. This must be a regular site for them to nest as they seem unphased by the large glass door and awkward nest location. Over the next couple of days the female robin laid four eggs, one per day. This is a standard clutch size according to wikipedia. The last egg was laid on June 25 so we expect eggs to start hatching this Saturday July 9. Mama bird does not particularly like our presence though and often flies away screaming at us if we come close to the door. I don't have any pictures of mama bird yet since she doesn't like it when we get close to her on the nest. We'll see if I can find a way around this. In the meantime, here are pictures of the nest and eggs.

I'll take more pictures as the nest & family develops.