March 24 Last night (March 23rd), Astrid laid her first egg of the 2020 breeding season. The egg was laid at 6:06 PM. To our recollection it was the first time Ares was present during the laying of an egg. He was anxious to see it and even stepped on his mate’s tail to get her to shift off it. We knew the first egg would come soon due to Astrid’s behavior in recent days and nights. She had been spending an increasing amount of time in the nestbox at night. Also, in recent nights, Ares had been bringing her food tributes at various times during the night. This is atypical behavior for this pair. In previous seasons, food tributes at night were rare. March 23rd is the earliest egg date ever recorded for this pair. The next earliest date was March 26th, which occurred in 2015. The former average date was April 1st and for three out of seven nesting seasons Astrid laid her first egg precisely on April 1st.
This morning the pair switched guarding the egg several times. For a while Astrid was missing from the canyon. We believe she was dealing with an intruder. Intruders have been a reoccurring issue with the falcons this season, although there have been few in the last week. This morning, during the height of the excitement, the egg was left alone for several minutes. Since full incubation isn’t expected to begin until after the second egg is laid, that should not be detrimental. The falcons were heard and/or seen mating six times by noon. The food being brought back to the box lately has been primarily Woodcocks and Starlings. However, Sunday night at around 11:30, Ares brought in what appeared to be a Killdeer.
Our monitoring of the falcons was not as close in the afternoon, but we know there was at least one mating. The falcons switched guard duty at the box a few times. In the evening the egg was left alone in the box for quite a while and there was one mating on the steeple. Right before nightfall, both parents disappeared from camera view again. We weren’t sure why. Hopefully, it wasn’t another intruder incident. As I write this at 7:45 PM, they are not yet back in view, but should be soon. Goodnight falcon fans.
