ATTN: Birdwatchers!

I have a problem. In the last hour, a friend dropped off a load of firewood. I got to chopping this cherry branch from a freshly-pruned tree. Before I chopped, though, I noticed a hole in the wood with hairs on the walls of the hole. Squirrel's nest, I thought.

I guestimated the depth of the hole and let fly with my chop saw. I got really lucky, chopping only the bottom 2 or 3 millimeters of the hole off. Surprise! No squirrel there, but a bunch of nested hair and an egg!

I took the hairs out a bit to see if there were more eggs and -- movement! It turns out the egg is the unhatched sibling to a little guy that is probably going to get pretty hungry pretty soon.

I think it would be cool to raise the little guy. Sadly, I suppose we could replace the branch, but it now has a massive hole in the nest, and my grubby hands inadvertently besmelled the hairs, so I need to find out what he eats to keep him alive.

Here's an egg shot for identification:


Bigger! Bigger!

I live in Seattle proper in the Pacific Northwest of the Continental United States, for those of you scrambling for the bird guides.

If you know a bird expert online, please link. The faster we can get him or her identified the greater his or her chances of growing older!

Much thanks in advance!


Addendum, Later that Day: I'll spare the bird haters of the LJ world and put the rest of this saga under a cut, with a single teaser:


Two of the Three

( Bird haters beware: The Kyoot Will Kill. )