Last night (Mar 19) at around 9:30pm, @CathyPelican107 tweeted me with news that there were now five eggs at the Gulf Tower. By the time I looked Dori was clamped down on the eggs and I couldn’t count them so I checked the WildEarth video archives.
During the 8:00pm hour Dori stood up and appeared to deposit an egg in the nest. It was really hard to see! Eventually she settled down with the egg alongside of her (above), presumably allowing it to dry.
Later she stood up to rearrange the eggs and I was able to count 5 in these two screen shots.
.
This afternoon you can clearly count five.
Meanwhile at Pitt, Dorothy spends a lot of time at the nest looking as if she will lay an egg … and then she doesn’t.
Don’t worry. Her median first egg date is March 23. She has plenty of time.
(photos from the National Aviary falconcams at Gulf Tower and University of Pittsburgh)
p.s. The fact that I mentioned Dorothy hasn’t laid an egg will probably prompt her to do so immediately … just to prove me wrong!
9:38 pm and Dorothy just laid an egg!!! She heard you!! Congratulations!
Dorothy just laid her first egg at 10PM!
We have 1 at the cathedral now!
We have one at the Cathedral now!
If you mentioning Dorothy not laying an egg is what prompted her, I wish you’d tried sooner!
Isn’t it unusual for Dori to continue laying eggs after beginning to sit on the first ones? I always thought the moms starting incubating the eggs after the next to last one and that was three eggs ago for Dori! Will it affect when the chicks hatch?
Kathy, I’m not sure we know when Dori actually began incubation. Peregrines have a way of covering the eggs that isn’t yet incubation but looks that way. We’ll just have to wait and see how they hatch to know for sure. If there’s a big gap between eggs 3,4&5 then we’ll know.