Florence

Giotto and Monna Tessa will be welcoming their 4 eyases on April 21, next Monday. So just a few more days to go, and little sweet eyases will be born here as well.
What a wonderful time of year this is, with all this newborn life coming in to our world. We are all so happy with every newborn peregrine falcon eyas.
A few decades ago this magnificent bird of prey was practically extinct. Due to DDT, eggshells where so thin, they broke immediately under the weight of the incubating parent. Thanks to Rachel Carson who I admire deeply, the world became aware of the disaster that was happening. Her book "Silent Spring" was the start of the way back. It has taken 40 years but now finally the peregrine falcon is not threatened anymore to become extinct and more and more juveniles fledge each summer all over the world. Sadly only 20% of them will survive. Life for a juvenile is very hard en many of the fledglings wont'make it into the next spring. Only the strong and lucky ones will survive.

Oberhausen:16 days old

Indianapolis

KathyQ and Kinney are incubating their 5 eggs. The chicklets are due on April 24, so 9 more days to go.

Harrisburg

James River Bridge: 5 days old.

Eemsmond

Cobb Island

Brighton Sussex Heights

4 Beautiful eggs with inside growing embryo's. They are now around 22 days old. This picture shows what the embryo's look like now, at this age. A real little chicklet. Notice the enormous eyes compared to the size of the skull.
The eyes of the peregrine falcon are very special. His eyesight is phenomenal. It has to be, for
flight depends on vision. A blind-folded bird cannot take off or fly properly because it is unable to orient itself. As predator bird ancestors adopted flight, they needed ways to find generally small prey (such as fish and small rodents) from the air; they needed abilities to see at close range; and they needed to maintain focus at high speeds when in pursuit. The most successful birds of prey in any population were those with eyes better adapted to these demands. Over thousands of generations, natural selection led to populations of predator birds with greater visual capabilities. Like the peregrine falcon.

Rome: feeding the eyases

Bologna

These two eyases are growing fast. Notice how the unhatched eggs are still around. Aisha has stopped uncubating them days ago. The eyases need to be taken care off, and that is more important than the unhatched eggs. These two are doing fine. They are still leaning on eachother. They are 12 days old. I a few days time they will be left alone for longer periods.