So Mama Hoo Hoo & Francisco are doing a fantastic job under the lighthouse. Two chicks have hatched successfully, while a third egg still remains.
Piping plover are precocial, which means they feed themselves. Even though the two little ones only hatched about 10 hours ago, they need to start wandering around the beach and finding food for themselves.
Mama Hoo Hoo & Francisco are taking turns minding (brooding) the two babies outside in the wild, while the other continues to incubate the third egg.
It’s not ideal to reach nightfall and still have an unhatched egg. It acts like an anchor and keeps the family from wandering off and beginning their nomadic life, wandering around the park in search of food.
As the sun sets, they still seem very committed to incubating the egg! That’s always an encouraging sign that the egg is viable.
But there is no obvious evidence that the egg is in the process of hatching, so really, it is anybody’s guess what will happen.