The falcons started out the day at 5:50 AM with a hand-off of prey at the nest box. It was too dark to make out exactly what Ares brought, but it was likely a hunk of a Woodcock. The morning was windy and mostly sunny and that’s always a good combination for falcons. It means free flying and they took full advantage of it. There were several changeovers during the morning. Ares usually announces his arrival at the box with a characteristic shriek, but at 11:20 he arrived quietly and visibly startled Astrid. Judging by her reaction, he probably won’t be doing that again any time soon. Astrid spent part of midday hunting and was out of camera view for a while. At one point Ares came off of the eggs and didn’t return for 13 minutes. Fortunately, it was a warm day and the eggs should have been able to handle that gap in the incubation process. We think that Ares went to help Astrid stir up the downtown pigeon flock. Outside of the breeding season, he has been seen driving Pigeons into her clutches on a few occasions. That could be what happened today, since not long after his return to the box she was on the hotel feeding on a pigeon. Once she had her fill she shoved the leftovers to the back of the ledge and went over to the church steeple. Later on when she relieved Ares at the box, the first thing he did was to go over to the hotel and polish off the leftovers. It’s a bit of a mystery to us just how he knew the food was there. From his perspective at the box, he wasn’t able to see Astrid eating. Did she give a special call while she was there to alert him to the food? We don’t know. Rain by mid-afternoon kept the falcons sedentary for a few hours. Astrid took over at the box at around 3:00 PM and seemed to be settled in for the night. During the rain Ares tucked up so tightly into a window ledge on the State Building that we could barely see him. He was active later on and was last seen hunting from the steeple at 5:45 PM. After that we presume that he went to his night perch.
