Grouse Chicks

As a followup to the May 22nd post of a Grouse Nest that Jason Abell found, I returned to the nest today and retrieved the time lapse camera that had filmed the nest for the past week. The camera took about 4,000 photo before it ran out of memory, but that was enough to record the event of the grouse chicks hatching.

May 26th, 10:51AM - None of the eggs have hatched.



May 26th, 12:05PM - The grouse is back sitting on the eggs.



May 26th, 2:14PM - The first chick appears.



May 26th, 3:07PM - The chick is back under the mother grouse and an empty egg shell is seen.



May 26th, 4:00PM - Three chicks next to the mother grouse.



May 27th, 9:01AM - A heavy rain overnight but the grouse hatched at least 9 chicks.



May 27th, 9:35AM - Mother grouse and the chicks leave the nest and don't return. In less than a day after hatching the grouse chicks are out of the nest.