After only two weeks the pair of eyases are growing like weeds. It almost seems like you can see them getting bigger right before your eyes.

Beauty is feeding them several times each day, with Archer doing much of the hunting. He visits the eyases too, but Beauty has been taking care of most of the feeding duty. By the end of this month they should be just about ready to leave the nest. But between now and then they still have a lot of growing left to do. You can see feathers just beginning to grow on their wings and tail. Growing feathers takes even more energy, so expect the feedings to continue at their current pace, or even to increase a little.

Sometime during the night it seems that Beauty disposed of the remaining unhatched egg. Either she decided it was non-viable, or it became damaged. She may have consumed it or just removed it from the nest. We’re not exactly sure what happened to it, since the actual disposal wasn’t captured on any of our cameras.

It’s not unusual for first-time Peregrine parents to have some of their eggs fail to hatch. 2002 was the first year that Mariah and Kaver were together. Mariah laid four eggs that year but only two hatched.

We’d have welcomed three eyases, but for new parents, two is an excellent number. It gives Archer and Beauty an opportunity to hone their parenting skills. The basics come naturally to them; caring for young is instinctual. But like anything else, they’ll get better with practice. We’re already seeing Archer being more consistent with bringing food to Beauty, and he’s looking a little more comfortable keeping the eyases warm while Beauty gets out for a little hunting and wing stretching of her own. Beauty is doing a great job of feeding the eyases, and with just two hungry mouths to feed, it’s likely both of the young falcons will get plenty of food.

The two newly hatched eyases passed their first uneventful night tucked beneath Beauty for warmth and protection from the elements. The eyases can go for about a day before they need a meal, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t hungry. In fact, they’re pretty much hungry all the time! So you’re likely to see a lot of feeding going on.

Our high-resolution Main camera caught some great pictures of the second feeding this morning, which took place at 10AM local time (the first happened five hours earlier). In the photo above you can see typical feeding behavior. Both eyases have their bills open in anticipation of getting fed. Archer delivered the food to Beauty and she took it into the nest box. She ripped small pieces of the prey (an unidentified small gray bird) and fed them to each of the eyases until they had enough.

How did Beauty know she’d fed them enough? Because the sated eyases lose interest in more food. They stop begging and lay down for an after-meal nap. Watch for this pattern to repeat itself as many as five or six times a day. By the time the eyases are five days old they’ll have doubled in size! That takes a lot of food, delivered over many feedings.

Now that we have a live video feed, it’s easier than ever to see how a feeding happens. Tune in if you haven’t checked it out yet, and let us know what you think.

Even more viewers (nearly 600!) watched Beauty & Archer’s second egg hatch just after 7PM this evening. The sound of the eyas making the final breakthrough was transmitted very clearly, and Beauty was perfectly positioned in the nest box to give everyone viewing our new Live Video Stream a front row seat.

The third egg could hatch later tonight, or it might take as much as another 24 to 48 hours. Watch along with us!

By the way, if you didn’t get to see the hatchings, here are the replays:
First Hatch
Second Hatch

We’ll also put the highlights up on the Rochester Falconcam channel at YouTube.

We’ve had the first hatch of 2010, just a little after 3PM Rochester time. In the picture above you can see the fresh pink skin and white hair-like feathers of the eyas which has just emerged from its egg shell. It’s damp and blind right now, and the newly hatched chick can’t regulate its own body heat, so Beauty will be covering the eyas to keep it warm and dry on this damp Rochester afternoon.

Almost 400 viewers got to watch the hatching live, as it happened. If you weren’t one of them, you still have a chance to catch the other two eggs hatching. Just tune into the Rochester Falconcam’s Live Video Stream, and you too can join the fun while we wait for the other two eggs to hatch!

Viewers watching our new Live Video Stream have seen the first hole in one of the eggs that Beauty and Archer are incubating in their nest box high atop the Times Square building in downtown Rochester. The picture above shows a small hole in the top of the egg that Beauty is cradling.

The first stage of hatching is called pipping. Pipping occurs when the falcon chick, or eyas, pokes a hole in the egg shell. Gradually the eyas will enlarge the hole, then work its way around the shell until it cuts off the top and pops out. The process can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days (if you need a refresher on hatching, take a look at this article from 2007). And thanks to our new live video feed, you can watch it as it happens. You may even get to hear a peep or two from the hatching eyas!

If you haven’t taken a look at the video feed yet, now’s a great time to join the hundreds of Rochester Falconcam fans who are already watching. Hatching should continue over the next couple of days, so stay tuned to catch all the action!

Year after year we’ve been asked why we didn’t provide a live video feed from the Rochester Falconcam. There were a variety of financial and technical issues that kept us from offering video, and frankly we’ve preferred to concentrate on offering the highest quality still images available on any nature-oriented webcam site. But thanks to recent advances in Internet technology, it’s now possible to provide live video “webcasts” at little to no cost, and without needing to maintain expensive streaming video servers and dedicated network connections.

Thanks to these improvements we’re finally able to offer live streaming video along with the high-quality still images you’ve come to expect. So just in time for hatching to begin, we’re very happy to announce the opening of the Rochester Falconcam Live Video Stream!

Simply go to the Rochester Falconcam, click Cameras at the top of the page, then choose Streaming Video. You may need to wait a few seconds for the video stream to appear. Just click the button at the bottom of the screen to start playing the live webcast.

Now you can see and hear what’s going on in the nest box day in and day out, 24/7. And if you can’t watch all the time, don’t worry. When we see something especially interesting, we’ll record it and post it on the Rochester Falconcam channel at YouTube.

We’ve also improved our Camera layout on the website. Now you can see all of the camera images on a single page. Click the Cameras link at the top of the page and you’ll find a new item on the menu called View All Cameras. The new view might not work with all Internet browsing software though, so we’ve left the Main Camera and Multi Camera pages in place.

Watching these magnificent birds in real time allows you to view a whole new side of Peregrine behavior that you may never have seen before. Go ahead and try it out! We think you’ll like what you see.

Well, it’s getting close to the time when Archer and Beauty’s three eggs should begin to hatch. They’ve been doing a great job of incubating the eggs. In typical Peregrine style, Beauty has 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 that estimate, so we expect this weekend to bring some excitement.

If you haven’t been keeping an eye on things, now would be an excellent time to start. Watch the falcons to see how restless they are. When hatching is near, they’ll get fidgety, changing position on the eggs frequently, in response to the noise and activity they hear from the eggs. If you don’t remember how hatching works (or if you’re new here), take a look at our article on hatching from back in 2007.

Of course, Archer and Beauty are new to us, so we can’t necessarily say if they’ll meet the 33-day incubation time. It could be a few days more, or even a couple less. Your best bet is to keep watching the Rochester Falconcam cameras so you can be sure to catch all the action. Write a comment and let us know when you think the eggs will hatch!

Today Falconcam viewers woke to find only three eggs in the nest box. Yesterday afternoon we noticed that one of Beauty’s four eggs appeared to have a dent or dimple in it. That most likely meant that the egg was non-viable. Then early this morning the cameras captured pictures of Beauty disposing of the egg, which had a large crack in it.

All birds including falcons may occasionally lay unfertilized eggs (poultry birds do it all the time; that’s where our breakfast eggs come from). Sometimes new falcon pairs don’t always get things quite right in the reproduction and egg-laying department, so this isn’t too unusual. In 2002 Mariah laid four eggs, but only two hatched. One of those was Freedom, Archer’s father. And back in 2007 one of Mariah’s eggs just disappeared during the night. So this isn’t the first time we’ve lost eggs here in Rochester, and likely it won’t be the last.

The “bad” egg was the one that was lighter in color than the others. Lighter color by itself doesn’t necessarily mean the egg is going to be non-viable though. There’s a lot of variation in the color of Peregrine eggs. They range from pale pink or brown to dark brownish or even burgundy, so don’t read too much into this coincidence.

We’ll probably never know exactly what caused this egg to fail. Sometimes birds lay empty eggs, but a close look at some of the pictures makes it clear that this one did have a yolk inside. We’ve discussed egg laying, along with the falcon reproductive cycle in previous Imprints articles (click the links to view the posts), but this is the first time we’ve had a really clear look at a non-viable egg. So even though it might be a little disturbing, it’s a good opportunity for us to observe the process of egg removal from the nest box.

Some of you are probably wondering what became of the discarded egg. At 7:35 this morning our cameras caught Beauty moving the damaged egg around. Just one minute later, the egg was no longer in the nest box, and Beauty was gone. At 7:38 Archer came in to incubate the three remaining eggs.

We’ve sent a message to our partners at the DEC to see if they can provide any other insights about the loss of this egg. We’ll bring you whatever answer we receive from them as soon as we get it. In the meantime, it looks like the falcons haven’t missed a beat, despite the cold wet snow that’s falling in Rochester right now, so we expect the brooding of the remaining eggs to continue normally. We’ll be sure to keep you up to date on all the happenings at the nest box as we await hatching in mid May.

UPDATE: We’ve heard back from Barbara Loucks at the DEC. Here’s what she has to say about the situation:

Not super unusual. May or may not have had an embryo in it. Don’t be surprised if it’s pushed out, treated like the others, or even disappears (eaten or carried off). If it’s still there at banding we’ll collect it. Perhaps it got jostled suddenly during turning or an incubation exchange, or smacked against a rough edged pebble, who knows. That’s why incubation is such a delicate period.

2009 was another banner year for Peregrine falcons in New York State. Barb Loucks of the DEC sent us their latest report, which is full of good news for the falcon population. There’s a detailed account of last year’s activity here in Rochester, including Mariah’s troubles and the arrival of Beauty and Archer. They also included a nice write-up regarding Quest’s travels.

Everyone at the Rochester Falconcam is pleased to be a part of the Peregrine recovery in New York. With the help of volunteer watchers and our many fans who monitor the nest box cameras, we’re able to provide valuable information to Barb and her colleagues. If you’re reading this, you can take pride in the contributions of the Rochester Falconcam community.