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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.

Update for Saturday, March 23, 2024

We had a rather potent winter storm today. However, it didn’t seem to hamper the falcons’ breeding behavior very much. Astrid laid the first egg of the season at 9:25 AM – the very first day of her traditional egg-laying window! After a couple of contractions and one large push, she produced the egg. Ares got to see it about ten minutes later. The falcons took turns in the nest for most of the day. In the early afternoon, Ares was dealing with an intruder. At one point he came back to the nest and let Astrid handle the situation. Later, Ares brought Astrid a food gift. She took it over to the hotel and had it for lunch. He brought her a second gift a few hours later.

Update for Friday, March 22, 2024

It was another very cold day in the Canyon with some snow flurries. However, the snow did not hamper the Peregrines very much. We observed about 5 or 6 matings, two food exchanges, and three or four ledge displays. Quite a few times today Astrid & Ares switched at the box as if they were engaged in incubating eggs. Speaking of which, we are now only one day out from the start of the egg-laying window.