De Mortel: S2 and Pa

Very early morning in a foggy spring morning in De Mortel near Gemert. Pa brings breakfast for his mate S2 and his 4 hatchlings in the nestbox. S2 has heard his arrival and gets out of the nestbox real fast. She takes over the meat to feed her hungry eyases. Pa is out hunting most of the day. De Alticom Tower in De Mortel near Gemert is standing in the middle of a great and beautiful nature area. Many passerines have their habitat here, together with small gamebirds, dear, foxes and so on. An awful lot of pigeons live here as well, flying round the tower in flocks. What more does can a peregrine falcon wish for: prey by the hundreds, height, a very luxerious nestbox and no competition. So Pa has his territory here for years now, for S2 everything is quite new. But I'm sure she never wants to leave again.

Rochester 10 days left

Terminal Tower Cleveland

Oberhausen: you're all amazing

De Mortel :9 days old

Rome: 19 days old

Nijmegen: big dinner!

Well that was some kind of lunchsnack that was brought in! It had to be plucked first, and she did it in the nestbox. Watch kids, this is how it should be done. It was feathers all over, and later on blood all over one eyas. People how didn't saw what happened before thought one eyas was hurt. Well no, I'm afraid the pigeon was.
The eyas had a very fresh and very bloody meal and they loved it. Of course they did these little raptors to be...

James River Bridge: 19 days old

Remember when 3 very tiny little adorable eyases crawled out of their eggs overhere. That was only 19 days oago. And look at them now: big and strong and looking very fat. And they should. Thousands of feathers are growing all over their bodies. And they should all be fully grown in another 3 weeks time. So they are tired and sleep all day.

Cobb Island

Zwolle

After a rough start the eyases are doing well. It is all going by the book. The eldest eyas is a very determind lady indeed. She does not take no for an answer. She is standing up front, wanting to eat first. She stretches out to get a bite. "Me first mom, me first..." The female however feeds all three evenly. She takes very good care the youngest one gets it's portion as well. I saw how she waited untill it had it's head up and little mouth open for her to put a piece of meat in. They are all very, very attentive mothers, the peregrines. They are very intelligent and are very much aware of their eyases and feedinghabbits. They know the smallest needs more attention. In other bird species it is not like that at all. Who is weak, goes overboard, mostly thrown out by one of their siblings. No such thing in a peregrine nest. All eyases get along very well and don't fight over dinner. That is because of course there is very seldom a shortage of food.

Oberhausen: fresh pigeon for lunch...

Columbus Ohio: Scout & Orville

Things are going their way overhere. Incubation seems to be progressing normally. Overall, the weather this spring has been warmer than average including several very bright, sunny days. Scout appears to be panting from time to time. This is correct-she does sometimes pant and if you have noticed, stands over the eggs to shade them instead of setting tight on them. This is because of the extremely warm temperatures. The nest box faces south and especially on a sunny day, it can be quite warm up on the 41st floor nesting ledge. So, to compensate, Scout regulates the temperature of the eggs by standing over them and to cool herself, she pants. These behaviors are normal.

De Mortel: miracles do happen

S2 and Pa are very busy all day to keep their eyases satisfied. Pa hunts and when he has a break he is near the nestbox or sitting on the antenna. Keeping an eye on things. Chasing everything and everybody away who comes near his mate and his hatchlings. Pa is a superdad, we alle know that! He is doing a great job. He provides so much food that his eyases are very well fed all the time.

Florence: 8 days old

Yesterday the cams where offline but today we could enjoy the pictures again. All three eyases are very alive and kicking!

Indianapolis

Zwolle: 3 eyas doing very well

Oberhausen: 31 days old

Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project

After a long watch I did catch them changing shifts!
We can start building up: one week left of incubation. So things are getting really ready now inside the eggs. The embryo's are nearly ready, just need to grow in thsi last week. The first down is growing, the lungtissue is near completion. The eggtooth has grown and is ready. And the ossification of the skelton is in full progress. What's really essential in this last week is that the embryo turns in time, so it is with it's beak towards the aircell and in the middle of the egg. If it doesn't come into the right position in time it will be to late because the space is getting smaller and smaller. Now you will think turn in time? How come? Well peregrine embryo's like all bird embryo's move around in the egg a lot. They are just like human embryo's swimming in fluid surrounded by a membrane. They don't breath air in the egg, but getting their oxygen from the air outside by the complicated blood circulation within the egg and embryo. It is all very , very sophisticated and one of the true miracles of Nature. This tiny top-design incubator.
So our Derby eyases to be are still awfully busy inside getting ready for their birthday!

Hatchtable updated

With the recent hatch in Brightom Sussex heights the table look like this. There will probably be a fourth hatch overthere in the morning. I don't expect a 4t hatch in Zwolle however.