We are aware of the camera outage and a working to trace its source.

Although both birds were somewhat defensive of the site when DGIF biologists accessed the ledge to clean and modify the nest box, they have not been seen on camera recently. We will hopefully resolve the camera issue soon and continue to monitor the site.

Since the last update both of the remaining eggs have been lost. By about 5:30pm yesterday the 3rd egg had been removed from the nest by the falcons. The fourth remained and appeared to have pipped. The female settled down to incubate the egg overnight and we were hopeful that the remaining egg might still be viable.

As of about 6:15 am this morning the fourth egg had also been removed. We are unsure what may have led to the failure of this clutch. There are many plausible causes and we simply don't have enough information at this point to speculate. This morning eggshell fragments and a sample of the gravel from the scrape were retrieved for lab analysis.

We will continue to monitor and evaluate the nest site. There is still the possibility that the falcons will have second brood. We will update you as information becomes available.

We are aware of the unfortunate happening at the nest in Richmond. At this point it appears that we lost two of our young birds. One was noted dead this morning and a second egg appeared to be hatching. This second egg was then carried off by the female.

As of this posting it appears that a third egg is in the process of hatching.

At this point we are unsure of what exactly has happened. We do not wish to engage in speculation, any number of scenarios are possible. We are consulting with our project partners and will post further updates as soon as we are able.

At least one of the eggs has hatched and second has pipped. The 1st egg hatched at about 6:30pm, and a good sized hole was seen in a second egg at 8:05pm. Pipping is the process by which the chick begins to pecks a hole in the egg. By tomorrow morning we should have at least two falcon chicks, called eyases. The female is keeping both the new hatcling and the remianing eggs well protected. Note the empty eggshell in this photo!

We continue to watch and wait for the first hatching. The female seems to be a bit fidgety over the last day or so, checking and rearranging the eggs frequently. Our initial estimate of April 21st for a hatch date was obviously a bit early. Incubation of this clutch began later in the hatching cycle, resulting in a later hatch date.

We are monitoring the camera regularly and will post any updates as quickly as possible

Those who liked to peek in on the falcons at night were long able to take advantage of the buildings lighting to keep an eye on the birds. A problem with the lighting has darkened the ledge at night. We can see a flickering bulb on camera, but at this critical stage we are unable to do any maintenance on the ledge.

We have a further difficulty in the early morning when strong light from the rising sun illuminates every smudge and scratch in the camera dome, confusing the autofocus feature of the camera which confuses this glare with a close object. A camera operator is not always available to correct this issue but we are trying to ensure that we refocus the camera as quickly as possible.

We are drawing close to hatching for our eggs! Falcon incubation averages about 33 days. Calculating the date of the first hatching can be tricky however as the birds don't really start to incubate in earnest until the second egg is laid (even later if the weather is quite warm). The purpose of this is to minimize the size difference between siblings, preventing the youngest from being at too great a competitive disadvantage.

The falcon egg prognosticator calculates that the 1st egg will hatch on April 21st or 22nd, this is approximately 35 days from the date the egg was laid.

Required electrical work at the site resulted tin damage to piece of the falcon cam's network infrastructure. This has been replaced and the cam is fully operational

We are aware of the outage and are working to correct it. Hopefully the cam will be back online soon.

The Richmond peregrine falcons have four eggs! In all likelihood we won't see any more eggs. although very rarely more then 4 will be laid. Finding room to incubate all four was a bit tricky!

Sometime in the afternoon of March 22nd the third egg was laid. We'll keep watching to see if a fourth egg is in the works.

Sometime between 11pm on March 19th and 7 am on the 20th the Richmond peregrine falcons laid their second egg. We'll keep watching to see how many eggs form this year's clutch

After much anticipation the Richmond Peregrine Falcons have their first egg as of about 5:10pm. The female spent most of the previous evening raising hopes that egg laying would be imminent.

More eggs are likely imminent as the pair continue to breed. You'll notice that the egg is not being continually incubated. This is not a cause for alarm. Incubation is often delayed until the last egg is laid. This may be a strategy to reduce the time between hatching for the eggs. Eggs are incubated, on average, for 33 days. Four eggs is a typical clutch, although 5 or even 6 occurs rarely.

For more 1st egg action be sure to check out the Norfolk Botanical Garden Eagle Cam - where the 1st egg of a replacement clutch was laid on Sunday.

Following some extreme weather in the Richmond area last night (high winds, heavy rains and lightning). The Falcon Cam has lost some of its functionality today. While the image is still being fed, many camera controls are unavailable. You may notice intermittent outages today as we attempt to restore camera function.

One of the falcons was seen at the box briefly this morning.

Enjoy this short clip of the female feeding and then flying in to the ledge for a close up

The young Richmond falcon that had been rehabbing with Tri-County rehabilitation (band 49-Z) has been released. Although the bird had recovered nicely it still seemed to favor its right wing.


She was placed with a Falconer, a technique that allowed her to self-regulate the amount of exercise she was capable of. In essence the bird was able to determine when it was ready for release. On Wednesday Feb 27th, She did just that, taking off for an exercise flight and not returning. Our thanks to Tri-county for a great job

The Richmond FalconCam is live for 2008! Both parents have been noted in the area lately with the female seen utilizing favorite perch on the BBT building. In Virginia, Peregrine Falcons typically lay eggs in March or April. Cam viewers may recall that last year's nesting attempt was fairly late, with the parents starting (and abandoning) a nest site at the James River Bridge prior to settling back into this site.