Category: Awesome

As of early this morning, April 6, there are 3 eggs in the nest box. Astrid had been acting like she was ready to lay since around 4:00 AM. Ares had come back to relieve her a couple of times after that, but she sent him away each time.  Finally at 6:23, she stood up and we got to see the new egg. Astrid left the box, presumably to feed on the meal Ares had tried to give her earlier. Ares immediately took over incubating. We expect at least one more egg to be laid in the coming days.

 

Tonight at about 7:00 Astrid laid her second egg. This event was the culmination of a particularly active day for the pair. Today Astrid spent most of her time away from the box, but always kept an eye on it from her perch on the other side of the Downtown canyon. Ares brought prey back at least 4 times and their were as many instances of the pair mating. There were also at least 2 or 3 courtship dances inside the box. Full incubation has yet to begin, but will probably start sometime before the next egg is laid. We should see the next egg by late Sunday night or early Monday Morning.

 

 

As requested, we’re posting the video the video of Astrid laying the egg on Wednesday morning. From the perspective of camera 3 (directly above), it’s a little hard to tell what’s happening, but this was it, folks! Close to the end of the nearly 5 minute clip, she moves out of the way to reveal the egg. Ares comes into the box at the very end and gets a look at the egg for the first time.

Wednesday morning at 9:00, Astrid produced her first egg for the 2015 breeding season. This is fully 9 days earlier than she began laying last year. We can expect up to 3 more eggs to be laid in the coming days. We suspected that egg laying was imminent based on Astrid’s recent behavior. She had been loafing on the State Office Building more than usual and instead of coming to the nest box to receive food from Ares, he was bringing it right to wherever she was perched. Last night Astrid came to the box and spent a lot of time sitting. We thought the egg might come then, but it didn’t. She had come and gone 2 more times by morning. At 8:30 AM she was back and obviously ready to lay. The incubation period for Peregrine Falcons is at least 33 days, and so we expect hatching of the eggs to begin in early May. These are exciting times indeed!

The Utica Peregrines have remained very active for the past week. During this period plenty of courtship displays have taken place at the nestbox. Ares has also been bringing many prey tributes to Astrid – most of which he was willing to let go without a prolonged tugging match. A few days ago he brought her a bat – the second time this season. He actually ate most of it by himself, which you can see for yourself in the video linked below. If you fast forward 3 mins and 20 seconds into the video, you can see Ares tempting Astrid with the bat. He even tore off a small piece and fed it to her as if she was a nestling. Peregrine Falcons are generally quite strict about their prey, limiting themselves to flying birds. Bats would seem to be the only regular exception to that rule.