Well, folks, it looks like we have a new pair of resident falcons! We’re not sure what happened to Isabella and Freedom, or where they might be, but we’ll keep you posted if we find out anything.

In the meantime, we have an unbanded male and a banded female. If we get a chance to scope out her bands, we might be able to figure out who she is, and I’ll make sure to give you the scoop.

What the “Love Birds” Have Been Up To

This pair has been busy bonding, defending their space and arranging the nest site. If you got a chance, you might have seen a prey hand-off from the male to the female this past Tuesday at around 11:15am (looks like it was a killdeer).

The female has also been busy working on the shallow depression that will be the “nest.” Peregrines in the wild nest on ledges on cliff faces in a rounded scrape among the accumulated debris on the ledge. Three to four eggs are typically laid about one month after mating.

When Should We Look for Eggs and Chicks?

The young or eyases (as juvenile raptors are called) hatch in 29-32 days, and fledge just over a month later. They will stick around for a while after that as they learn to fly and hunt, but the majority of our prime webam viewing will be April and May.

Since the eggs are not laid all at one time, there is usually a space of about a day between chicks. The female chicks, will be about 50% larger than their male siblings, take up to a week longer to fledge.

Since our pair was caught on camera mating at the beginning of the month, look for the female to settle in within the next week or so. Exciting times ahead!

I’ll be continuing peregrine falcon updates under the heading “Peregrinations . . . Or, the meandering thoughts of a campus nature nut.” As spring arrives on campus, I’ll also highlight some other nature occurrences.