Tragedy on the Nest~

Tragedy on the nest...The female worked so hard to provide shelter from the storms and tornadic winds. We had a total of nearly 4 inches of rain fall just in one day on Wednesday, not to mention the fact that it had been raining nearly consistently since  Friday late last week.  The Ohio River is at 9 feet above flood stage.   Tingsgrove sits in a valley between a creek between two acres and one that T's across the back and it looked pretty much like a lake most of the week as well, yet has now receded.  The hen was feeding her viable chicks Wednesday evening, and a few times during the day. Yesterday morning, she was off of the nest and breeding again, and no longer feeding any young. She does not appear to be distressed as when something takes her young~

The images from top to bottom:

The male brings a meal of fresh Chipmunk to the hen on Wednesday afternoon, during a brief break from the down pour.

NOTE...the plastic bag used as building materials in the nest ;)

The hen is feeding her viable young on Wednesday.

Yesterday...Thursday she was preening herself above the nest, being harassed by the Blue Jays just like always, nothing seemed at all wrong.

She then flies down closer to the nest and seems to be checking on the young ones, or so I thought.  She flies down onto the nest and then picks something up with her beak and flies off with it.  It looked like a small bone, or something.  I still had no clue that anyhting was wrong...and then...

From out of no where the male arrives and they copulated...  Thus said...we begin the process all over again~

The bottom image is my creek that looked more like a lake running heavy with small rapids~