All of Dorothy and E2’s eggs have hatched, as you can see by carefully counting heads in this picture.
(photo from the National Aviary’s falconcam at the Cathedral of Learning)
All of Dorothy and E2’s eggs have hatched, as you can see by carefully counting heads in this picture.
(photo from the National Aviary’s falconcam at the Cathedral of Learning)
What an Easter blessing! Expecting Dori to be having her babies any minute? How long will the Harrisburg falcons continue to sit on the eggs that don’t seem to be viable?
Dori’s eggs should hatch soon.
Harrisburg’s remaining eggs probably won’t hatch. She will move them out of the way in the days ahead.
So sad about Harrisburg, but what wonderful news for Dorothy and E2! Thanks, Kate.
Good job Dorothy and E2!
Sweet little babies!
Did you see the google home page today? It is celebrating the 226th birthday of John Audubon. Nice…..
With the eggs hatching, it got me thinking about a bird physiology question….When do baby birds start breathing? and why don’t they need to breathe in the shell? With mammals, the mother’s blood provides oxygen through the placenta to the baby until the baby is born, when the baby needs to start breathing….I am completely ignorant of bird physiology, but I’m assuming that their blood works the same as ours, carrying oxygen to the cells in the body. If this is the case, how does that work while they are in the shell? Or does the shell pass oxygen through so that they actually can breathe in the shell?
Excellent! So early June we’ll get to watch all these guys hopping all along the ledge. If I’m remembering times right. I flipped through the FAQ, maybe a “What the timeline of a young peregrine’s life?” could be added with approximate times from laying of the eggs to incubation to hatching to ledge walking to fledging to leaving the parents area. Lots of that is already in there, but it’s all separated out and has longer discussions of details. I hope they’re up and ledge walking by Memorial Day when my parents are coming to visit.
I have been watching Dori on and off all day today. That little pip is an out and out hole on that one egg.
Poor Dori, all she wants to do is take a nap. She keeps trying to close her eyes (she looks like me trying to stay awake at my keyboard sometimes) and she gets poked from underneath. Just think of the job it is for the little guy to be pecking away and that shell all this time.
Good question, Mary Ann. The shells have pores that allow air in. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_(biology)#Shell
Wilmington, DE also had it’s first hatch today 🙂
http://www.dosbirds.org/wilmfalcons
John/Akela
I just saw Dori with an egg shell so at least one chick has hatched!
It’s 6:39am and I see, literally!, that the first of Dori’s eggs has hatched!!
Amazing!!
There’s a baby at Gulf!
It is great that all 5 have hatched! I wish them a successful fledging also.
My school went on a field trip to the nationality rooms today and I was lucky enough to see TWO falcons flying around the cathedral!!!
Do falcons (presumably the parents) eat the leftover shells, as at least some bird species do?
Yes, they do.