The Two Year Olds II: The Three Year Olds

Hopefully some of you actually made it through the recent Reading, The Two Year Olds. I had to get it out because someone has to commit this history to paper before it’s gone forever. As stated, it could very well be our genesis story for the AF era of peregrine: “After Flu“

To recap:

1. All the kings and queens of the land of peregrine died of a dreaded disease.
2. A young girl stumbled from the wilderness into the now-empty kingdom.
3. She made herself at home and enjoyed playing queen, uncontested, in the vacant paradise.
4. By the time she turned two, she attracted a would-be king. An unlikely candidate, he was also a two year old, who walked with a permanent limp due to a broken foot.
5. The two youngsters caught everyone off guard when they actually married and hatched two princes, despite their age. They are no longer playing around. They are the start of a new generation.

Coming into 2026, I was very aware that I no longer enjoy checking the cameras during the winter months because winter has been the season we’ve been losing all the adults. Maybe the cold makes them more immunocompromised or something. More likely, the big flocks of waterfowl huddled together in the frozen bay, and the first arriving flocks of shorebirds, are simply superspreaders.

So when BH/85 wasn’t seen on camera for first a few days, which then turned into a few weeks, in January, our hearts sank. Maybe his lame foot did him in. Or maybe he didn’t have the immunity we hoped he had. Or maybe he just gave up and left, exhausted by the crown.

His absence was made even more concrete when after a month, a new male showed up at the tower. He was a young fledgling, not even a year old. BN/29 wasn’t feeling especially gracious towards this new interloper, so he rarely lasted for more than a moment or two on camera.

But he was persistent, and soon we’d catch him on the tower for longer stretches before she would chase him off. After a while, he became curious about the igloo too.

First, he would just put his foot in it, then run away. Then, as if it was a prank his buddies dared him to pull, he would run into the igloo and then, quickly back out again. “I dare you to run into the queen’s chambers and count to 10,” I imagined they said.

Each time, he would stay a little bit longer. Because each time, she would allow him to stay a little bit longer.

As the weather started to warm and signs of nesting season were suddenly everywhere this spring, the two of them began disappearing into the igloo and screaming at each other for long periods, which is pretty much what peregrine do when they are falling in love with each other. Just like us.

But with a single, crazy video, everything we thought had happened, or was about to happen, was turned on its head.

Before you watch this, I’ll break it down for you so you know what you’re looking at….

First, our hero, BH/85 appears out of nowhere after being absent for months, essentially having allowed a new male to get halfway towards replacing him. You’ll see him limp around the left side of the igloo, interloper hot on his tail, then enter it and lie down, claiming “MINE!”

The interloper is right behind, chasing him, and blocks him in the igloo by puffing himself up, raising his wings, and blocking the entrance. Remember, peregrines fight with their feet, so it is really unclear if BH/85 can even fight this guy, despite his young age.

But no matter; suddenly BN/29 flies in from the right and goes full beast-mode, while clearly choosing her mate.

As the two boys emerge from the igloo and begin to fight, she pushes her chosen mate (on the left, our hero, BH/85) out of the way and behind the igloo out of sight, says “hold my beer,” then immediately goes after the interloper to the left, grabs his feet and chucks him off the tower to the ground! I’ve never seen anything like it.

We will never know for sure what she did to that poor bird when she got him down there, but it surely was not pretty.

Since this event, everything has been humming along smoothly for BN/29 & BH/85. The Two Year Olds are one year older, one year wiser, and now, Three Year Olds.

Over the past month it was clear from the camera that she was on eggs. This week, hatch appeared imminent. Kathy was txting me constantly… “can we make the cameras take more videos? EOM,” “Can we make the videos longer? EOM,” “Can we make the videos bigger? EOM,” “Can we make the videos louder? EOM”

But just yesterday I was out in Plover Park when I got the one txt she was working towards, and the one I was really waiting for:

“I see eggshell!!!!11!! AND I HEAR THEM CHIRPING!!!11

The Three Year Olds have done it again. Maybe our skies won’t be empty of peregrine forever.

So, what’s the moral of this story? It’s, quite simply, that it was really annoying for you to read “BN/29” and “BH/85” over and over again, and keep them straight. In fact, I didn’t even bother to type the band code of the interloper because it would have made your head explode.

These two really need (and deserve) names. If you have any good ideas, now that you know everything that I know, feel free to drop a comment, or send an email with suggestions to The Little Egg Foundation.

The End? I sure hope not! This is supposed to be a genesis story.