Greetings tweeters,

Sorry for the delay in reporting, there don't seem to be enough hours in the
day...

As I reported earlier, Belle, the Seattle downtown falcon (Peregrine, that is)
started laying her eggs on the 22nd of March. Exactly 365 days and 2 1/2 hours
after last year's first egg (leap year).

Last year's egg dates and intervals were as follows:

#1: 3/23/95 at 20:00
53 < hours later
#2: 3/26/95 at 01:16
50 hours later
#3: 3/28/95 at 03:16
55 < hours later
#4: 3/30/95 at 10:28

Last year's first egg looked very bleached and pale, compared to the second
egg and Belle had not shown any signs of wanting to sit on her first egg.
Stewart had. As soon as she laid her second egg, she laid down on it, leaving
the older, bleached egg, off to her side.Early in the morning of the 26th,
around 4 am, after the outside lights on the building went out (this year they
stay on all night), she somehow removed the first egg from the nest box. The
next morning it could be seen laying broken outside the nest box on the ledge.
The tape shows very little detail (only city light reflecting off clouds) but
hopefully digital enhancement will reveal exactly what she did. Personally I
don't believe she kicked it out. The distance between scrape and nest box edge
was too great.

At the time all of this escaped all observers. We had been present, watching
the monitor, waiting for the second egg till 1 am. Later we found out she laid
the egg minutes later... When observers came in the next morning the log
showed people present till 1 pm and still no second egg. When the monitor was
turned on Belle was sitting on the corner of the nest box, with only one egg
in the scrape. Because not everybody came and watched the eggs every day, the
change in color of the egg was not noticed.

This year the intervals, so far, have been far greater. Belle laid her third
egg just past midnight on Thursday. This is what it looks like so far:

#1: Friday March 22 at 22:26
60 1/2 hours later
#2: Monday March 24 at 10:54
61 1/4 hours later
#3: Thursday March 28 at 00:08

We/I thought that perhaps the interval might get shorter after the second egg.
After all, based on last year's sequence 60 1/2 hours between eggs seemed
long. But no, 60 1/2 actually was short.

Wednesday night was very windy up at the eyrie. Belle was there a lot, but the
wind ruffled her feathers while lying down as well as when standing up. At one
point she got up and jumped to the light fixture next to the nest box, but was
practically blown back by the wind. She barely regained her balance, turned
and jumped down to the ledge.

I watched the monitor for telltale signs of imminent egg laying. In particular
her football-shape and small contractions as well as heavier flank movements
(panting). Due to the wind non of these subtle signs were discernible. I
waited till midnight, answering calls till 11 pm from people wanting to know
whether she had laid yet. But since I had an early-morning comitment to give
four 45 minute slide programs about Bald Eagles, I did want to get a fair
amount of sleep (especially considering the night of no sleep two days
earlier).

She did it to me again. Eight minutes after I left she laid that third egg. I
console myself with the fact that it wouldn't have made particularly good
real-time video footage, what with the wind ruffling her feathers and the dark
picture. She did show her profile, but her wind-blown flank feathers covered
the egg, even after it was laid. When she laid the egg, she did straighten her
body, rising up vertically, opening her bill slightly just before the final
egg-producing push. So at least that behavior is consistent. However, it is no
good in predicting the egg-laying, say, a couple of hours in advance.

Very careful analysis of the time-lapse tape the next morning showed the
briefest glimpse of all three eggs two minutes after laying, before she
settled down on them and fell soundly asleep.