Actually, the eggs of the title here aren’t red or blue at all. But they do exist and we here at the library are thrilled.
As I may have mentioned in the past, our beloved peregrine falcon Nona, so accustomed to roosting and laying on our building every spring, did not show up this year. Instead, the male, Squawker, came with a young, very beautiful female falcon. What proceeded after this was a great deal of courtship. On the library. Next to my window.
Now in the past Nona would have laid long before now and we would have had our banding ceremony of the baby falcons at the end of May. But because the new female (named FAY by the library) took so long in her courtship, she’s only now laid her eggs. Three of them, as it happens.
Peregrine falcons are rather equal opportunity parents. The fathers will alternate sitting on the eggs with the mothers, and both will hunt and find food for the babies when hatched. When will that hatching be? It’s complicated. If the female really is just out of her juvenile plumage then it’s possible that her eggs won’t be viable this year. Still, we here at the library have our fingers firmly crossed that everything proceeds as usual and that we have a new crop of beautiful fuzzy chicks emerging soon.
Now if only the weather would warm up a little as well . . .
