Astrid spent the entire night in the box as expected. Temperatures got down to just below the freezing point overnight. This meant that she had to stay tight on the eggs the whole time – or at least when either of us were looking in. When Ares came in at 6:10 we saw that there were still only three eggs in the nest. We knew that Astrid was close to laying the fourth egg, but from her actions it seemed that maybe she didn’t know it. When she spied some prey from her perch on the steeple, she dove for it. She came back in the box at around 7:00 and 17 minutes later she laid the fourth and probably final egg of the clutch. Through noon there were quite a few changes of the guard with both birds sharing the incubation duties pretty evenly. In the morning the temperature rose up through the 60s and by afternoon when the sun was hitting the box, it was looking rather uncomfortable in there. Unlike yesterday when Ares took most of the hot shift, today Astrid endured the bulk of it. Ares brought food to her twice in the afternoon. I missed the first gift, but it was small. The second gift was a Woodcock which Astrid took. She flew over to the steeple where she proceeded to pluck and eat it. It’s unlikely that there will be anymore eggs laid in this nest this season, but Peregrine Falcons are able to lay clutches of 5 eggs, so it is possible that we’re not done yet. Astrid tends to lay eggs at an interval of about 60 hours, which is on the long side for Peregrines, but is normal for her. If she keeps to this schedule we would have a fifth egg at around 7:00 PM Tuesday evening
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