A cold front slid through the area last night accompanied by a few thunderstorms and showers as it passed through the area, with some gusty winds exceeding 50mph!  This biggest thing to notice heading out today is that it is much less humid! A much drier air mass will be over us today.   The forecast calls for the day to start out breezy with sunshine and scattered clouds early…temps jump into the low to mid 70’s by this afternoon along with increasing clouds and diminishing winds.  Late day sunshine is expected!

The female was seen incubating eggs late afternoon just before 5:30 PM.  She was awake and gently looking around while making every effort to protect the eggs from the late day sun,  Something caught her attention and she lifted her head up, straightened her neck and went into a state of higher alert.  She rose up and turned to her left to look out to the west, alerted to some disturbance.

In cases like this, a passing bird predator may draw the incubating falcon from its eggs.  Much depends on whether the off-duty partner is nearby.  Even if it remains silent, the sitting falcon will nearly always see the mate and will doubtless recognize alarm signals from its manner of flight.  The female, remained on lower alert level after looking out, but still seemed to keep a sharp eye on whatever was going on outside the nest box!

Literature cited:

Ratcliffe, D. 1993. The Peregrine Falcon. 2nd ed. Carlton, England: T. and A. D. Poyser.