On the morning of March 15 at 6:30am, viewers got their first glance of the first egg. We knew egg laying was close as the pair has been observed copulating, performing eee-chup courtship (bowing) displays on camera. Frida has also been spending more time in the nest box preparing her scrape, which is a shallow depression in the nest box where eggs are laid. Peregrines do not build a nest like hawks, eagles and ospreys and instead create a shallow depression in gravel, soil and other debris to nest. This is often the case on ledges of cliffs and in our human dominated landscape, it also includes tall buildings and sometimes flowerpots left unattended on upper floors of apartment building patios. The second egg should be laid sometime over night or tomorrow.
On another note, we decided to wait to remove the worn green carpet for perching. Introducing disturbance to the pair before laying began would not have been good. Instead, we will swap this carpet when we visit the nest for a health check after the young hatch in around 45 days (late April).
Lastly, we opened up chat on two of the live streams on our YouTube channel, so you can watch and talk with other viewers. BW