Counting Peeps

Eggs that have been laid at my purple martin colony are hatching and things so far are looking pretty good.  Sometimes newborn martin get are hard to count so rather than disturbing them too much by feeling around to count them I just whistle softly and heads pop up.

This is probably due to some sort of chatter the adults emit when they arrive with food.  I found a clutch that was a renest attempt meaning that the first set of eggs laid were apparently infertile and kicked out of the nest (which I found on the ground) and then a new clutch laid.

The new clutch contained seven eggs, but I know already that one of them will not be hatching because something "pipped" a small hole in it.  Once this happens bacteria can enter the egg causing it to rot.  I won't be surprised to find this one on the ground.