Believe it or not, a 2nd egg has been produced. It was 1st seen in the early morning of May 19th. Hopefully this 2nd clutch will be successfull and with the help of  the MNR & CPF, we will be able to band some young falcons.
After 3 weeks of no activity, all of a sudden our resident female has decided to lay an egg. This is after losing all 4 eggs produced almost 2 months ago. The egg was produced yesterday, May 16th. We are really hopefull that more eggs are to come & that they have some luck with this clutch as they have not had much luck the last few years.
For whatever reason, all of the 4 eggs that were produced here this year are gone. The adults have consumed the eggs. After 4 weeks of hard incubation this seems really wierd to me. I thought it was the cold weather but knowing that at least one other nest site has young ones, it makes me wonder. However, perhaps it’s not too late for another clutch!
As I said in my last post, it has been hard to get a look at what’s underneath the adults here as they are rarely off the eggs. Yesterday I witnessed the female consuming an egg shell. She was over the scrape & I couldn’t see underneath her so I was hoping an egg had hatched & she was eating the shell for calcium as they normally do. Unfortunately, today I got a good look at the scrape when Mom took a short break from incubation & I could clearly see that there was no young one. In fact there are only 2 of the 4 eggs remaining. It is hard to believe that after 4 weeks of hard incubation that they could loose these eggs. I think that perhaps the frigid weather has played a part in the failure. I’m not too optimistic about the chance that the other 2 eggs are viable but we have our fingers crossed. Hopefully the other nest sites don’t have simalar problems this year.
I wish I could post something interesting but the fact is that Trillium is sitting on the eggs 24/7 & it’s kind of like watching paint dry.
Trillium & Buffalo Bill now have 4 eggs & full incubation is under way. With the cold weather, it is hard to catch a glimpse of the eggs. Hopefully it warms up real quick. Mom & Dad are taking turns but it’s mostly Trillium on the eggs.
Yesterday I left work at 3:30 pm. There was only 1 egg in the scrape. This morning when the sun came up, there were 2 eggs in the scrape. Full incubation has not yet begun so we are hoping for more.
Today at approx. 2pm Trillium produced her first egg. With the weather being so warm, she left it unattended & we got a good look at it.
Yesterday while I was having lunch at work I looked up at the monitor &  Buffalo Bill our resident male showed off his jewelery close to the camera. After the fight last Friday I wasn’t 100% sure who was the victor but the falcon got up real close to the camera and sure enough it was 68 over r black over green the resident male Buffalo Bill. He looks no worse for the wear as both legs are working  just fine. The pair are exhibiting courtship behaviour.
Today as I was leaving work at 3:30 pm I glanced at our monitor in the lunch room & noticed there were 3 adult falcons bent down facing each other squawking (1 female, 2 males). This went on for a few minutes until Trillium (our resident female) sort of backed away & the 2 males got aggressive towards each other. I’m not sure which one, but I think the resident male Buffalo Bill 68 over R chased the intruding male from the box. We thought the confrontation was over however the intruder returned. The tiercels then went at each other locking talons & pecking viciously at each other with their beaks. During the conflict, one of the birds got a talon hooked into the band of the other & they could not free themselves. The circumstance accelerated the animosity towards each other and they got even more aggressive. This went on for what seemed to be a very long time (I’m guessing 5 minutes). All the time pecking at each other. At one point, they made their way perilously close to the edge of the nest box with a sheer drop of at least 150 feet! Thankfully they did not go over the edge. The birds were becoming exhausted & at one point we thought that one was dead or severely injured as it was flat on it’s back with the other pecking at it. The bird somehow got back up and as if a miracle the talon became free and he fled the box. This was a little too much action for me because I thought that perhaps there could be serious injury to Buffalo Bill. I’m pretty sure that he was the victor but I haven’t positively ID’d him since. I think he’s OK though because the following day there were 2 falcons in the nest box for most of the day (but I couldn’t see the band colour). I’m pretty sure it’s Buffalo Bill.