More about Egg #1

Two days ago on Tuesday, it seemed that this beautifully constructed nest would never house eggs because the tiercel insisted on bringing an endless supply of paper, plastic and unidentifiable trash to line the nest bowl.  No matter how many times the formel cleaned house...

... back he would come with yet another load, poking and fussing it into place.

Then he would step to the front of the nest and look out as if to locate his mate in a nearby tree and say, "Well, how about THAT piece I just brought in!"

On the rare occasions that she flew in, the formel spent hardly more than 30 seconds on the nest.  Even when dad left her a tasty mouse morsel, she would grab it and go find a nice smooth, neat monument on which to eat her snack instead of that trash strewn nest.  Hawk watchers started to wonder how and when the eggs would ever get laid.

And on Wednesday, the tide of trash rose higher.....

... and higher in the nest.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was windy, and some of it blew away. By mid-morning, the formel was on the nest...

...and finally seemed more interested in staying there for a while.

Then she settled deep into the nest bowl.

We don't know for sure when she laid the egg, but when she stood up and left the nest around 1:00 PM, there it was, nestled on the remaining piece of plastic she deemed worthy enough for her egg!

When she returned a few minutes later, the plastic had shifted slightly over the egg...

... and when dad showed up, he immediately moved into action, twitching the plastic fully over the egg,

... and then settled himself into the nest bowl.

When the formel returned, it took a couple of minutes of her pointedly staring at him...

... before he got the hint...

... to let her move back to her egg.

He left to rustle up a tasty rodent, and she decided it was time to start shifting that pesky plastic.

She moved it away from the egg and out of the nest bowl.

It stayed on the edge of the nest for a while

... but within the hour it was gone, leaving the nest finally looking a more normal environment for eggs, though there was still quite a bit of paper lining the nest bowl.

This morning (Thursday) dad was crouched over the egg along with a piece of newspaper...

... while his mate was out hunting - successfully, as it turned out.  This is a family that definitely shares the household responsibilities!

When she moved down into the nest bowl, he adroitely shuffled the paper away from the egg as he shifted out of her way.

However, this piece of paper caught her eye (how could she miss it?)

... and she clearly wanted it back in the nest bowl.

Over the next few minutes, she tugged and tore at it, getting it just where she wanted it around the egg.

She shredded off some strips and tucked them down.

And then pushed away the larger pieces.







She kept starting to sit back down on the egg...




... then standing up.

More paper pushing...

And then after all that - poof - she was gone.

But within literally 10 seconds dad zoomed in to take his turn on the egg. He LOVES everything about this nest and taking care of the egg.

It is likely that egg #2 will show up sometime on Friday.  Eggciting times to be sure!

BREAKING NEWS!! THE FIRST EGG APPEARS

At about 1 PM today, much to everyone's surprise, the formel laid the first egg of the 2012 season.   John Blakeman fortunately was watching the cam and got this image just after the egg appeared.
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Dad had been continuing to dump plastic and other junk in the nest despite the formel's best attempts to clear it out.  She appeared to have little interest in settling down to lay an egg, and quite frankly, who could blame her, when the nest bowl looked like an outtake from Hawk Hoarders from Hell.

Earlier today was the first time she  stayed on the nest for more than a couple of minutes, and as John Blakeman notes, "the formel showed few 'eggnancy' traits. She just dropped the egg and resumed normal activity. She's a pro, with no problems."

More to follow in a longer post.

Will the first egg come soon?

We are all anxiously watching the nest cam awaiting the appearance of the first egg of the 2012 season. 

John Blakeman, raptor biologist and expert on all hawk matters shared this information last year about what to look for in the formel's behavior as she gets closer to laying her eggs:

"The formel, when the big egg really starts to form and descend down her one fallopian tube (mammals have two of these; birds have one, so that they don't have to fly around with unused extra weight), will take on a somewhat stiff and concerned 'look.' She will not be as active and will just sit there for long periods, looking a bit dazed.

And if I had a fallopian tube with a descending mass commensurately as big as the hawk's egg, I'd be dazed, too.

Then she'll sit down in the nest and get ready. The laying of the egg can't been seen. It just comes out, without much effort. But she'll get up a bit later, turn around, look at it, and then sit back down. That's probably when we'll see that the first egg has been laid."

-John Blakeman


The formel is still not spending much time on the nest compared with her mate who persists in bringing really weird stuff to the nest.  Last Thursday, the nest started out with nice pine greenery around the edge, and some paper in the nest bowl.

Within an hour, the tiercel brought in a flattened cardboard box, and we noticed what looked like a tiny origami high top sneaker!  It turned out that was the paper crumpled artfully!

Then the box was gone...

... replaced by an important looking stick.

On Friday morning, there was more of what can only be described as junk in the nest, all brought in by the tiercel.

On Saturday both dad and mom were on the nest, with mom appearing to be a bit dismayed at the state of the nest bowl into which she was soon to be laying her eggs.

When the tiercel left, she started to declutter it, removing some of the paper.

Back came dad to the nest bowl which is now so deep, one cannot see a hawk in it from the ground.

He brought more paper, of course...

... and then started tweaking the pine fronds.

Then it was back to the paper and cardboard area....

... trying to get it just to his liking.

The next thing to appear in the nest was a large, solid looking plastic bag.  Neither hawk seemed particularly interested in it.

Dad started to eat a bird carcass at his feet.

When mom realized there was food to be had...

... she moved right in on his snack, and flew off with it!

He was left with the mysterious bag.

Let's hope this bag will soon be replaced by an egg.