!!! Very unusual behaviour!
June 27, 2010 - Ottawa - Delta Ottawa City Centre
CPF Postmaster Reports:
There has been an interesting development with the Ottawa falcons. After more than five weeks of incubating three eggs to no avail, Diana and Connor were expected to abandon their nest. Last Tuesday brought a surprise: While one of the old eggs was fractured and now outside the nest, there were still three eggs in the nest. That means Diana laid another egg while still incubating two of the old ones. By Wednesday, the egg outside the nest was gone, but they continued to incubate three eggs as usual.
This behaviour — adding a new egg to an existing clutch after weeks of incubating - (and whle currently still incubating) — is unusual, to say the least. If anyone has ever encountered this phenomenon before, or can explain it, please let us know.
It’s not likely that the new egg has been fertilized, but we continue to monitor the nest to see what our falcons might do next.
Anouk
