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Hatch Watch

As the days warm up everything seems to move faster, including time.  A little less than a month ago the Peregrine Falcons completed their clutch of five eggs.   We are now close to the time when eggs should begin hatching.  The average incubation period for Peregrine Falcons is approximately 33 days.  This is nature so there is variation.  Nevertheless, we could possibly see our first “fluffball” over the weekend, but perhaps more likely the bundles of joy will appear early next week.  Even though there are five eggs, all five may not  be fertile viable eggs and may not hatch.  This has occurred on a few occasions at the Capitol.

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Hopefully a scene similar to this will be on our webcams sometime next week.

As others have noted, our Capitol falcons are a little behind others.  For example, the Woodmen Peregrine Falcons, which includes Capitol progeny Mintaka, welcomed fluffballs into the world over the weekend.  I attribute this difference to natural variation.  As I have stated before, the Capitol Peregrine Falcons are very experienced and are old pros at this breeding thing.

Enjoy the show!  Once again, if you are reading this and want to go straight to the LIVE! streaming video, click HERE.

Nongame Bird Blog

About Joel Jorgensen

Joel Jorgensen is a Nebraska native and he has been interested in birds just about as long as he has been breathing. He has been NGPC’s Nongame Bird Program Manager for eight years and he works on a array of monitoring, research, regulatory and conservation issues. Nongame birds are the 400 or so species that are not hunted and include the Whooping Crane, Least Tern, Piping Plover, Bald Eagle, and Peregrine Falcon. When not working, he enjoys birding.

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