29 March

Bell laid her fourth egg. Both birds are now in full incubation. We will have more specific information on egg laying details (times, observations, etc.) in a day or so.

27 March

Bell laid her third egg Monday, March 26, at 0724; this was a little over 50 hours after she laid the second egg. We expect the fourth and final egg on Wednesday. During the night prior to laying, she spent more time incubating the eggs and less time standing over them in the nest box than on previous nights. We expect full time incubation over the next 24 to 48 hours.

26 March

The 2001 nesting season officially began on March 22, when Bell laid her first egg. Egg #2 followed on March 24, and we expect the third egg on Monday, March 26, with the fourth on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how long she goes between eggs. While her average interval between eggs is just over 55 hours, her shortest time between eggs is an even 50 hours, and the longest is 61 hours and 26 minutes. There is no discernable pattern.
As usual, Stewart immediately began covering the first egg; he has done this every year. Bell stood by the egg or over it, or perched on the edge of the box. She has spent more time in an incubation posture over the last couple of days, but we don't expect full incubation to start until after she lays the third egg.

Late Winter Update

Last season's four young had dispersed from downtown by the first week in August. We saw one of the young females make a brief visit to downtown in mid-August, but, after that, we had no reports until February. A birder read the VID band on the left leg of an immature female near Monroe, northeast of Seattle, and she was ST, the last female to fledge. We've had heavy mortality of young on this project, so it was great to know that at least one is alive and well.

This winter continued our normal pattern of females holding winter territories at some of our major bridges. One of those birds is a juvenile, so it will be interesting to see if she remains here throughout the summer. One of the other females (D1) is a bird that was banded in the San Juan Islands in 1997, showed up here in the spring of 1998, and has been here most of the time since then. She has discovered the nest box at the West Seattle freeway (where a pair nested unsuccessfully a couple of years ago) and appears to be trying very hard to attract a mate. We will be watching her to see if she succeeds.

Stewart and Bell, our downtown pair, remained here all winter, as usual. He is courting her with gifts of food (showing her what a good provider he is), and both are visiting the nest box and the nest ledge (showing their attachment to the nest site and focusing her attention on it). Our winter has been very dry and sunny (atypical!), and we wonder if and how this will affect when she lays her first egg. The earliest she has ever laid is March 22. Since she's in charge of laying the eggs, we humans will have to wait
and see when it happens.