False alarm on the egg front!

The opportunity of having streaming video is quite exciting for recreational viewing, but it is also a valuable tool from a species management perspective. There is a lot to learn about what these birds do and a window to their world shows us much we otherwise wouldn't see. Not many have witnessed a wild bird laying an egg, much less a peregrine falcon. Despite the lack of experience, we (and I include myself in this!) may think we know what to look for--but do we? Earlier this morning Scout was standing in the scrape. Her posture was unusually slouched over and her eyes were going half closed. (I've seen her sleep in the nest box before and this was definitely different.) Every so often she'd look down at her feet and vocalize. I thought that she might be in the process of laying an egg and I was capturing the whole process on video! I just knew that luck would have it that her first egg would "conveniently" arrive during normal business hours and I'd be able to make sure our "Latest Happenings" link would be up to date for the weekend! But unfortuntely, after about 15 minutes she left the nest box=false alarm! Check out the March 2007 archives for a video clip of Scout laying the first egg last year.

Will the first egg for this season appear over the weekend? Definitely possible! Unfortunately, I do not have Internet access away from my office, so this is my last update for this week. Unlike many of you, I won't even know what's going on until I'm back in my office first thing on Monday. The next update will be posted as soon as I am able. Here's hoping for the official start of falcon nesting season in Columbus soon!