Now hear this…

Not tonight, honey…                                                                  Photo by Cleve Nash

“Now hear this. Stand clear of all weather decks, due to high winds and heavy seas. Batten down all loose gear.” You can bet the peregrines are hunkered down with wind gusts to 60 mph, white caps and sand blowing across the beaches, but all is well with both pair of falcons.

The north side pair are due to hatch sometime this week. We are looking to see her take prey into the eyrie. This will be the first indication that the chicks have hatched. After that happens, we should begin to see the young ones in a couple of weeks when they come to the edge of the nest site to defecate. Teetering on the edge of certain death, they will show no fear and will do their business.

The south side pair after abandoning the “diving board” eyrie, re-grouped, re-bred, re-clutched and have been incubating for the last week. As much as we hate to see the loss of the first set of eggs, it gives us a wonderful opportunity to watch the north side chicks develop, feather out and fledge and then we will be able to see the south side young go through the same scenario when the north side chicks are flying.

Cleve Nash is working on a third pair in the county that is trying to set up housekeeping. The tiercel is making his best efforts to breed, but she has rejected his amorous moves several times so far. If this works out and she comes around, we could have babies well into the summer!

Hopefully, this weather that we are having will calm down a little and I will be able to set up some spotting scopes. It’s hard to write about something when you can’t see what’s going on.
Happy trails, Bob