We had been eagerly waiting in anticipation up here at the peregrine watch to see if the falcon would lay a third egg. Usually there is a two to three day interval between the laying of the eggs and our last egg had been laid on Friday afternoon so we weren’t sure if we were going to have any more. However, one of our committed volunteers spotted the third egg this lunchtime! This means there has been quite a large gap of six days between eggs. There is still a chance we will get a fourth egg but again we cannot be sure.

One reason why there has been such a large gap between the second and third egg is that the falcon may not be in the best of condition due to the harsh winter we have had. A lack of available food would cause her to be undernourished and it would therefore take her longer to produce eggs. Fingers crossed she will lay another one soon!

At the eyrie (nest), the falcon (female) and tiercel (male) are doing their fair share of incubating. They tend to incubate the eggs for two to three hour stints. They leave them to hunt, bathe and sometimes just simply to sit in the big oak tree above the eyrie when it is not their turn to incubate.

Tom – Species Protection Officer