It is most likely that the prolonged wet weather and the very young age of the chick was the cause for our second Brandon chick's death. Chances are it was the youngest chick and at 3 days of age it was affected most by the wet. Hurricane isn't a large female (she's smaller than Princess) and with three chicks and a day-long deluge like yesterday, it was going to be almost impossible to keep them perfectly dry and warm. Though she did try, she was tucked under the cover of the roof all day without moving for most of it. The water that hit her blew in or dribbled off the roof onto her head (hence the head-shaking periodically). Of all the chicks, the youngest would be the most vulnerable to getting damp/cold during mealtimes and then not being able to dry off/warm up enough between meals. And that could very likely have been the difference between life and death for the little one. Add to that that we have had a chick death here already and it may be that even at 3 days of age,the youngest chick was already at a disadvantage which contributed to its death.
The last two years have not been kind to Brandon which is very unusual for this site. It could also be that Hurricane and Brooklyn are relative youngsters at this site and if the weather had been more normal, particularly this year, their chicks would have done just fine. Previous Brandon pairs held the territory for a long time, so hopefully with this year's experience to add to last year's Hurricane and Brooklyn will not have to fight quite so hard to protect their young in the future.
It is also hard but useful to understand that had Brooklyn and Hurricane been nesting on a cliffledge, the chances that any of their chicks would have survived yesterday's weather is slim. With the nestbox, their chances of success were increased dramatically. And yes, before anyone asks, for the new box planned for next year, we are looking at box designs that provide more roof cover to increase their odds even more. There are a couple of physical limitations we have to work with (the box is attached to a wall 30 feet up from the roof after all) but we have some ideas.
