While there’s no way to know yet whether this season will lead to a successful nesting attempt, Ares and Vera are showing promising signs. Their pair bond continues to grow stronger—evident in their frequent flights together, mutual perching, and an uptick in ledge displays at the nestbox. Significantly, they’ve been observed mating successfully—a milestone not always reached with yearling Peregrine females. In the past two days, we’ve also documented several food exchanges, another positive indicator of their developing bond.
One of the most encouraging signs is Vera’s growing attachment to the nest site—far greater than that shown by Ares’s three most recent short-term partners. She arrives at the box early in the morning, just as Ares has always done, and he seems to appreciate that tendency. At this point, we can’t say if Vera is close to laying eggs—or whether she will lay any this season—it’s not guaranteed with first-year females. As it happens, we are now in the middle of what would have been Astrid’s typical egg-laying window. Of course, we’ve yet to establish any such patterns with Vera.
