Egg drop soup
Thursday February 28th 2013, 12:05 am
Filed under: Wildlife

Four peregrine falcon eggs in the nestbox on the 33d floor in San Francisco, and as of today, four on the 18th at San Jose City Hall.

Only–there seem to have been five laid up north.

Peregrine eggs arrive 48-50 hours apart, and at the time everybody was expecting the second on the PG&E building, the female flew off camera for a goodly while–and laid her next right on cue two days later.

The biologist on the list chimed in: sometimes a peregrine will lay outside the nest. He had no doubt there had been one on time. It could be anywhere, and who knew why. She would not be done till there were four actually in the nest, and so, now there are, and the parents have begun incubation time, north and south.

I guess the second in SF was the bird equivalent of  a miscarriage, if she felt something was wrong with it?

He told us it was quite possible it could be somewhere where it could roll and then all the way down…. Gives new meaning to the falconista’s phrase, Keep looking up!

Meantime, I walked in the family room today just as the hunt was happening, unintentionally distracting the Cooper’s hawk so that his dinner got away. My apologies. He stood on that one favored spot on the fence awhile, watching Michelle and me, then swooped low towards us and up over the roof and away. I saw him fly by later, too.  I hope he’s got a nest full of eggs to guard and then feed this year himself–it’s been a couple of years since I’ve seen a Cooper’s fledgling toddling around my amaryllis pots, exploring its brand new world the way children do. But at least during nesting season I always get to see more of the papa.


4 Comments so far
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Fascinating. A little sad – both dinner and egg lost in the two different settings – but nature tends to know what it’s doing…

Comment by Channon 02.28.13 @ 7:40 am

And nature does it all without a delivery room, or, for that matter, a restaurant.

Comment by Don Meyer 02.28.13 @ 10:13 am

wow! once again I get more educated about those beautiful birds

Comment by bev 02.28.13 @ 10:42 am

I’m being reminded of the cycle of life by your recent posts – the peach blooms, the falcons, the hawks. It is good to know the wheel keeps turning.

Comment by twinsetellen 02.28.13 @ 10:38 pm



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