[The ocypete's muscular arms shaped the nest while its sharp talons secured it to the rocks. It seemed absorbed in its task, hardly looking at its surroundings. With the aid of the sniper scope, the reason became clear. It was securing its eggs. Whether the ocypete was the mother or the father was difficult to tell, but there was the chance that it had a mate somewhere, perhaps outside the immediate vicinity.

Rory kept quiet. He could not see the eggs from here and there was not much he could do one way or the other from his current position.]