The egg was laid

After more than one week going cold turkey on vultures I went to the Zoo of Duisburg today to meet my lovely Eurasian Griffon Vulture friends. I was impatient to see it that they already laid their egg.
When arriving at the enclosure I saw daddy-griffon breeding,so I knew: They actually laid their egg!!!
While waiting to watch the vulture parents change their breeding-position and being able to take a look at the egg I talked to a zookeeper. He told me they already laid their egg two or three weeks ago. If everything goes well, the baby-vulture will hatch in five weeks and I will have the next chance to take a photo session of the hatchling growing up like last year!!! Can't wait to enjoy that miracle of nature! ;-) When a zookeeper put two pig carcasses inside the enclosure mommy-griffon devoured big pieces of meat together with the Marabous, while daddy-griffon protected the nest against porcupines and other Marabous.One hour later mommy-griffon was full, cleaned her beak at a rock, arranged her feathers and was ready to spell daddy-griffon at breeding.Annoyingly, right at this moment it became very noisy around me 'cause some visitors were shouting and roaring very loudly. The poor vultures got frightened and both left their nest.One minute or even more the egg was lying in the nest without protection ;-( It's a shame, that some visitors don't consider breeding vultures! I am glad mommy-griffon came back to her nest very soon (headfirst, funny posture), tenderly touched her egg with her beak, placed some little sticks in the nest and secured her egg under her soft and warm feathers.One minute later she got up again, changed her position to make her egg feel more comfortable and relaxed.In between daddy-griffon noshed some fresh meat and drank some water.
Of course I was visiting the second griffon-couple in their special enclosure, too. At the moment this place is looking like a construction area, 'cause the snack bar next to the vulture's enclosure was torn down.
As usual the two vultures were sitting on their favourite trunk which is very smooth and well-worn by now.Thanks to my volunteering work at VulPro I know how important perches with a rough surface are. A new trunk with lots of barks would be very nice for the Griffon Vultures of Duisburg - but somehow it would be very sad to replace the vultures beloved trunk.
This time the vultures tried to start flying again, but their wings were badly injured since young age.I really would love to see the vultures fly over the fence 'cause they never give up longing to fly at last. Furthermore it would have been a good chance for me to practice my skills in catching vultures ;-)
Vultures are wonderful and spreading good mood to others around them!!!