UT / Salt Lake City - 2008-2013

[Ellie]

I missed the feeding but noticed that one of the eggshells from previous hatch had disappeared since earlier in the day.  Mom got up for second and I did see the egg and I also thought it may have had a pip.  Will keep checking now and again.

[jadoo]

..just finished watching a feeding, still 3 (fluffy) chicks and one egg;  thought i saw a pip in the egg, but it really is hard to tell....

[Ellie]

Mom just got up..........3 babies and still one egg to go!  They are sure pretty "fresh".  One wee one hasn't got all his fluffiness going yet.   Isn't it a marvel how an egg about 30 days ago was only a fertilized egg and now is a living bird.  Boggles your mind when you think about it!

[jadoo]

...mom finally moved, to grab a food package and commence feeding - there are 2 ball of fluff chicks, 1 unfluffed chick, and still one egg...

[Kinderchick]

Have all 4 chicks hatched now, jadoo?

[jadoo]

...more eggshells this morning, and i caught a glimpse of two chicks, one fluffy, and one not-so-fluffy, which i assume means it had just recently broken shell and hasn't had time to fluff up yet; i don't know if there are more than two, because mom's underside is made of glue, i think - she refuses to move off her darlings...

[jadoo]

...and just saw a hilarious scene - don't know what the back story was, but after mom left with the remains of dinner, you could hear her talking off-camera;  a few minutes later, the male is in the nestbox area, being "herded" in by mom (to show off the new chick???) he almost fell over sideways to get away from her as she followed him in, then he scrambled to the back of the box to give her a very wide berth, and ended up essentially jumping over the eggs, chick, and mom to get the heck out of there 

[jadoo]

got home around 2:00 or so, saw a glimpse of white while mom was shuffling around, another glimpse about a hour later as she briefly "lost" the chick during an egg shuggle, but no further glimpse until about 5 minutes ago, when dinner finally arrived and mom got down to the business of feeding - still one chick, i don't see any pips or movement out of the 3 remaining eggs;  chick doing pretty good, only fell sideways 2 or 3 times...

[jadoo]

...when i checked 1st thing this morning there were still 4 eggs, i've been out, just got back to find the mom(?) playing with an egg shell - so there's at least one hatch!      she hasn't moved, so i haven't seen a chick yet, and now i've got to go out again!  hopefully, there will be a view later on...i'll keep looking, and post any updates...

[Ellie]

Just had a look and no babies that I can see and he/she doesn't have fluffed up feathers to indicate that there might be a hatch.

[jadoo]

...shift change, and still 4 eggs....

[jadoo]

..been keeping an eye on this site, their post says they were expecting a hatch starting May24-26 - it's now the
27th, and although I haven't had a glimpse under the falcon yet this morning, as of 10:00 last night there were still 4 eggs, no chicks yet, but it should be anytime now...

[jadoo]

...took a peek at this site just now;  you can see the falcon tightly covering her eggs, snoozing, and you can see people wandering around far below, and you have to wonder if any of them ever think that there is all this wildlife around them, that they can't see...

[jadoo]

...had a chance to watch this site for a little while today - after watching Durand and Flyboy in Columbus, it is a relief to watch an experienced pair of parents...smooth transfer of incubation duties, male coming in and letting the female know her lunch was now available, a bit of chatter between the two, then an unhurried female carefully gets off the eggs and heads out to eat, while the male takes her place on the eggs, with plenty of the requisite "shuggling" to get all the eggs settled...at one point, as a matter of fact, the male showed up, chattered at the female for a bit, but i guess she wasn't hungry yet, so he waited around for a bit, and then headed out again...like a well oiled machine, these two...

[jadoo]

...aaaand egg #4 - incubation has definitely started..