And Then There Were Four!
Beauty's 4th egg, laid around 6:43PM
Yep, you guessed it, Beauty laid her fourth egg. We got our first clear look at it at 6:43PM. She and Archer have been sitting on the eggs pretty much constantly since the third egg was laid on Monday afternoon. Four eggs is an average clutch size for peregrines, and they usually begin incubating the eggs when the next to last one has been laid, so we’re fairly certain that she’s going to stop at four.
So, when will the eggs hatch? Well, provided that this is, in fact her last one, if we look back to Tuesday the 13th as the start of “hard” incubation, it ought to be 33-35 days from then. In other words, look for hatching to begin sometime around May 16-18. It usually takes a day or two for all of the eggs to hatch, but we should have some new eyases to watch by the third week of May!
April 15th, 2010 at 8:54 PM
This is somewhat bittersweet that we’re not seeing Mariah clutching but I am glad to see Beauty and Archer continue the Rochester Peregrine Falcon tradition.
April 15th, 2010 at 9:05 PM
Brilliant! I suspected she’d be laying another one today. : D
I feel great for Beauty and all, but I do feel bad for lonely Mariah. Do you think she minds being on her own, or does she enjoy life without nagging? ; D
April 15th, 2010 at 10:25 PM
Wonderful!!! Now the wait til the happy hatching days next month!
April 15th, 2010 at 10:43 PM
I, too, was suspecting she was laying another one today. Yahoo !! It’ll be so fun to watch them hatch next month.
April 15th, 2010 at 11:25 PM
Great photos. I love them. Thanks to all for the fab. updates!!!
April 16th, 2010 at 7:30 AM
I have a funny proposition for the names, provided we get 4 eyases:
1) Athing
2) Isa
3) Joy
4) Forever
Thus: A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOREVER.
Any thoughts?
April 16th, 2010 at 9:23 AM
I’m so excited to see the eggs this year. But I feel so bad for Mariah – we took away her home and she doesn’t seem to be able to settle anywhere else.
April 16th, 2010 at 9:55 AM
Egg-cellent!
April 16th, 2010 at 10:37 AM
This is such wonderful news!! I do still miss and wonder about Mariah, has there been any sitings of her lately?
April 16th, 2010 at 2:11 PM
What great news to read on this rainy/snowy Massachusetts day!! I too miss Mariah and Kaver, but such wonderful excitement in life moving forward. Woo hooooo! 😀
April 16th, 2010 at 5:53 PM
Sorry Anita, there haven’t been any sightings of Mariah since the end of October 2009.
April 16th, 2010 at 7:54 PM
Wait – she’s not even been -sighted-?
Oh.
D :
April 16th, 2010 at 8:50 PM
I should have said no confirmed sightings since October. There were a couple of sightings over the winter that could have been Mariah, but no one was close enough to make a positive ID.
April 16th, 2010 at 9:45 PM
I know it’s important to move on, but I really miss Mariah too. Hope she’s still okay. Does anybody know how old she is/was? And what’s the life expectancy of a peregrine falcon?
April 16th, 2010 at 10:10 PM
Mariah may be as elusive as her daughter, Quest. There’s only been one very brief possible sighting of Quest in several months and we Know where she is! On the other hand, if Mariah has found new territory and a mate, she’s probably brooding and staying within a limited area.
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April 17th, 2010 at 8:03 AM
Jim V. I like your suggestion a lot, it is wonderfully clever. However the naming of the eyases in Rochester has traditionally been entrusted to various individuals (or school classes) who have contributed to the falconcam experience in some way.
April 17th, 2010 at 12:17 PM
Ah…perhaps she’s still about. Maybe next year she’ll be luckier. : D
Well, if it ever does come down to suggestions for the names by the community, I think some nice names would be Citius, Altius, and Fortius. ^____^
April 17th, 2010 at 7:58 PM
Thats a good idea, Jim V, I like it. I am so looking forward to the day to day till the hatching. Thank you all.
April 20th, 2010 at 8:56 AM
Can anyone tell me which falcon is at the UB South Campus? I hope Mariah is alright… Please keep us posted. http://www.buffalo.edu/webcam/falconcam.html
April 20th, 2010 at 8:02 PM
In my perfect world, we will see baby peregrines and find that their mom, Mariah, is happily in a safe, new place
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:03 PM
Chris, our best guess is that Mariah would be fourteen this year. Peregrines can live in the wild for longer than that, but she’s pushing the edge of life average expectancy for a non-captive falcon. She’s proven to be a tough girl though, so who knows how long she might live?
May 13th, 2010 at 7:05 PM
[…] done most of the brooding, but Archer has shown him self to be a dedicated egg-sitter too. In an article last month we speculated that hatching should begin sometime between May 16-18. We’re still sticking to […]