On Friday, I posted a request for information about what triggers ovulation in a female hawk and what the logical time frame would be for the Dark Female to lay eggs.

Katherine Herzog and Pamela Langford offered some excellent insights.

Katherine reminded me that Pale Male and Lola usually started courting behavior around mid-February and nested in early-March, so they had about a four week window.

Pamela asked a biologist for my question.  The answer was that scientists don’t know all of the variables.  Certainly, time of year/daylight and food supply play a large part, but scientists also know other factors such as behavior play a part.  (Even less is known about what triggers a second clutch, when things go wrong!)

So, given all of what I know so far, I only think I can say that we shouldn’t be concerned if this new female takes up to four weeks to lay eggs or somewhere around April 22nd.  I could however be much shorter.  Bets anyone?

Saturday was typical of what has become the normal pattern at the nest.  Copulation, a shared late afternoon meal, chasing an intruder Red-tailed Hawk (whose identity is a mystery), and lots of nest visits primarily at this point by Pale Male.