It is an egg-citing time atop UC Berkeley’s Campanile bell tower thanks to a famous peregrine falcon that has now laid three new eggs as of Wednesday.

Annie, the falcon that has lived since 2016 atop the third-largest bell-and-clock tower in the world, has paired with a new male companion that arrived earlier this year. The new bird was dubbed Archie in a naming contest held by the Cal Falcons group of scientists and volunteers who monitor the birds and share photos, video and information about them on social media.

The pair’s first egg arrived in the nest Saturday, then a second on Monday and a third Wednesday.

Peregrine falcon chicks (from left) Rosa, Luna and Zephyr sit in their nest on May 8, 2023, at Sather Tower on the UC Berkeley campus. The chicks each received color-coded ID bands earlier in the week and their names were chosen through votes submitted through the Cal Falcons website. (Cal Falcons/YouTube)

Annie has raised 18 chicks on the bell tower and the Cal Falcons group estimates that the new eggs will hatch sometime in late April. Last April, the arrival of the new chicks inspired a party held at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive as well as another naming contest for the three chicks that hatched.

People can follow the falcons via live webcams and find out more about them at https://calfalcons.berkeley.edu/.

Dan McMenamin is the managing editor at Bay City News, directing daily news coverage of the 12-county greater Bay Area. He has worked for BCN since 2008 and has been managing editor since 2014 after previously serving as BCN’s San Francisco bureau reporter. A UC Davis graduate, he came to BCN after working for a newspaper and nonprofit in the Davis area. He handles staffing, including coaching of our interns, day-to-day coverage decisions and management of the newswire.