1 April 2020
Two mates, no eggs. No fooling!
The last day of March was another confusing day at the Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest. Morela courted with two mates — Terzo and the unbanded male — yet she still has not laid an egg, though she looked as if she was ready to do it the day before.
Yesterday’s Day In A Minute video shows 12 hours of the revolving door, 7a-7p, in only a minute. It sure looks busy!
Thanks to all of you who’ve reported nest activity, we have a partial picture of what’s going on. I’m sure we’ve missed something.
- 6:43a Terzo before dawn (Kate St. John)
- 8:25a Unbanded male (Pa Gal)
- 10:46a Terzo (Kate St. John)
- 11:47a Unbanded male (J)
- 12:30p seen from Schenley Park: male peregrine on lightning rod of CL while Morela at nest (Kate St. John)
- 2:10p Terzo (Pa Gal & Mary Ann Pike)
- 2:23p – 2:53p Terzo alone (Mary Ann Pike, Pa Gal, Luann Walz, John English)
- 3:56p Terzo (Pa Gal)
At this point the males have reached a stalemate. They chase each other but neither one wins.
I can’t even predict what will happen next. Keep watching the National Aviary falconcam and let me know what you see.
(photos and video from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ. of Pittsburgh)
At 8:44 am two unbanded birds. Oh dear, here we go!
9:06 – unbanded male again with Morela. They bowed very closely to each other, seeming to touch their beaks.
About 9:12am it was the unbanned male (I think) and Morela bowing.
Yay! At 9:54 Terzo makes an appearance but he is alone. Didn’t stay very long.
Is it ever too late to lay eggs? And how long can Morela delay that process?
Susan, egg laying is over in late April. I don’t know that she can delay it indefinitely. This is all new territory to me.
All are bowing, nobody scraping
What a nail bitter.
10:40 am on 4/2, Morela looking *very much* like she’s about to lay an egg
Morela was just in the scrap either breathing hard or trying to lay an egg it looked like. 7:46 pacific time, 10:46 eastern time I guess. There was another bird on the camera or above her as I could see the shadow. They disturbed her and she jumped out to perch.
Update, 11:15 on the second and Morela is now bowing with someone off camera
Much echupping, 2 birds, 12:55pm today. Morella and a male. She looks ready to burst – someone call the midwife!
Terzo and Morela are bowing at 2:09 on 4/2. Sadly, it didn’t last very long!
how will she/we know who is the successful mate?
It won’t matter who fertilized the eggs. The real question is which male owns the territory. Only time will tell!
Observed shadow of mating on Friday 4/3 at 11:02 am. Since it was a shadow no idea of the male, but at least we know she is mating!
Terzo has appeared a few times today, and Morela has been in the nest, and vocalizing, too. At one point, she jumped up on the roof and wouldn’t you know it, she was joined by somebody and at 11:02, they mated. It’s too bad that they weren’t on camera so we couldn’t see who it was, but their shadows made it clear as to what they were doing.
At 3:41 pm today, Terzo and Morela in the nest. He stayed only a short time.