Like Jennifer and her mate in Selkirk, the nestbox at McKenzie Seeds is a nicely accessible site for viewing peregrines from street level. And the Brandon birds do love the MTS Tower across the street as well. And when their chicks are near fledge age, they do like to winger-cize on the nestbox roof and later on the wall surrounding the building’s lower rooftops. Less subtle activities however take some experience to recognize. In this case, knowing the difference between courting behaviour in the nestbox and starting to lay eggs. And we are fortunate to have RCF (her online nom de plume) who has been watching the McKenzie Seeds Peregrines for more than a decade now and can spot the difference two (or four) blocks away!
Now this could be one of any of a number of activities … peregrines make scrapes in their nest and do minor housekeeping from about the time their mate arrives to shortly before egg-laying.
This could be courting or a shift change … if courting, males call to the females from the nestbox and when (if) their lady love arrives they begin their bowing and dancing until the female joins them in the box or doesn’t. The male then leaves the nestbox and she usually stays there to scrape or just remains onsite for awhile. If it is a shift change then either the male or female arrives to relieve their mate which sometimes requires some encouragement and the incubating parent bolts from the box.
And finally, the hardest to see (literally) is the dead giveaway. A peregrine tucked down that low in a nestbox is really only there to keep eggs from getting cool (prior to incubation) or actually incubating.
In this case, all three photos were taken by RCF and in the first, April the new female at McKenzie Seeds was egg-laying; in the second, it was a shift change with Wingo Starr leaving and April arriving and in the third, yes, April is incubating. A little arithmetic, we expect Wingo’s and April’s eggs to hatch at the end of May/beginning of July depending on how many eggs were laid.