Author: Matt Perry

Update for Thursday, March 28, 2024 

Continuous incubation hasn’t quite started – at least not as of Thursday Afternoon. It seemed like Astrid had begun to take full incubation seriously, but not Ares. During almost all of Ares’ turns brooding, he would stop after only a couple of minutes and hop out onto the lip of the box or onto the crossperch – either that or he would leave. At this time of year he becomes obsessed with Astrid’s every move, and when she goes out of his sight, he needs to find her. Today he had to monitor her when she went over to the hotel for a drink – of course, that would be a drink of water from one of the ledge puddles. She often drinks water when she’s expecting to lay an egg. Obviously, we are curious about when she will lay her egg and what the interval will be between the 2^nd and 3^rd eggs. Will it be a traditional (for her) 60 hours, or will it be like the last interval – a grand total of 71 hours. We may find out tonight.

Update for Wednesday, March 27, 2024 

Astrid and Ares continue to be night owls. Ares brought back a Woodcock at 1:44 AM. Astrid had no interest in it and didn’t even bother to come off the eggs. However, when he returned with the same prey at 2:07 AM, she took it from him and flew off into the canyon. Later on, we noticed that she didn’t have a full crop, so I think there’s a fair likelihood she stowed it someplace or disposed of it. That way she wouldn’t have it gifted to her a third time. During the day, there were many switches at the nestbox – one taking over for the other. For the most part, they were smooth transitions. They are not engaging in continuous incubation yet. Especially when Ares is on duty, he doesn’t brood for more than a minute before going out onto the crossperch and looking to see what Astrid is doing. We expect continuous incubation to begin soon – perhaps tomorrow. We also expect the third egg to be laid tomorrow evening, that is if Astrid reverts to her traditional 60 hour interval between eggs. We shall see.

Update for Tuesday, March 26, 2024

It was a very sleepless overnight for those of us who expected Astrid to lay her second egg on time – which should have been at around 9:00 PM. She had other ideas or at least her body had other ideas. As it happened, she did not lay the second egg until about 8:50 on Tuesday morning. With over 71 hours between the laying of egg #1 and #2, we easily entered record territory. Ares brought Astrid at least three food gifts today – one she refused (unsurprisingly, a Woodcock). They were seen mating several times and they conducted quite a few ledge displays – although most were no more than instances of them switching places. During one changing of the guard, Ares forced the issue and attempted to oust Astrid from her sitting.

Update Monday & Tuesday March 25 & 26, 2024

As of this posting (4:15 AM), As far as we can tell, Astrid had not laid her second egg. It is still quite dark inside the nestbox, so it’s hard to be absolutely sure. If it is verified that she hadn’t produced her egg, it would be unusual. Astrid has only rarely gone beyond 62 hours between eggs.

Update for Sunday, March 24, 2024

Astrid and Ares took turns guarding and/or brooding their new egg for most of the day. There were also some periods when they left the egg alone. Ares provided food for Astrid at least twice during the day and one mating was observed. Late in the day Ares got very upset about an intruder. As often happens, when he has difficulty escorting an intruder out of the territory, he fetches Astrid (the big guns). We did not see the action in the sky but it seemed like Astrid dealt with the problem. We expect the second egg to be laid sometime tomorrow evening.