It was another very active day in Falcon Canyon (Downtown Utica) as Astrid and Ares continue their courtship rituals. Over the past week there’s been a marked increase in the number of displays taking place, but today we got to see an example of a more intense display session. It began at the nestbox with Ares taking center stage and Astrid out on the front perch. After a few minutes of bowing from these positions, Astrid started to lope about on one of the box’s side perches; she began peeking her head in and out of Ares’ view – now you see her, now you don’t! After a few minutes of this she jumped into the box and the pair’s mutual bowing dance began. This time it was way more buoyant than usual with Ares in particular acting like he had swallowed a giant spring. But I think in his case it was more likely that “spring fever” was to blame. After some intense bobbing, Ares dove from the box and flew off out of sight. However, the show wasn’t over, as Astrid seemed to know. She peered out as Ares began a flight display. The camera was actually able to pick up part of his performance as he appeared to nearly strike the box with each pass! More action of the day included two instances of mating at the box (a new record for a single day) and at least 3 tributes of feathered prey were presented to Astrid by Ares.
Ares flybys start at about 5 minutes into the following video clip:
Great vid!