It was chilly and overcast in the early morning, but became mostly clear and much warmer by midday. The first changing of the guard took place at 5:45 AM. Ares brought no food tribute at that time. Quick switch-outs were again the rule through the morning. Astrid pulled the bulk of the hot shift in the box this afternoon. She had taken over from Ares shortly after noon and remained in place until 4:00 PM. For a while during that period we weren’t sure where Ares was – we couldn’t locate him with our PTZ camera. Finally at around 2:45 Deb saw a bit of him on one of the perch cameras. Apparently for an unknown amount of time, he had been perched on the eastern edge of the east veranda. He called a couple of times and then flew over to the State Building. Fortunately Astrid didn’t seem all that stressed by being in the sun so long. About an hour after the birds switched some person in an office adjacent to the nest box moved too close to a window and that compelled Astrid to swoop by the box. She didn’t seem too mad, but she did keep a close watch on the nest site from the church steeple for quite some time after that. By 6:45, she seemed to be having fun, soaring around the State Building and playing on the wind. At that point, Ares began shading the eggs as much as he was incubating. As of this writing (7:00 PM) Astrid was still not quite ready to come back to the box; in fact she just made a dive after prey! I expect that she will return to the box within the next half-hour, but don’t quote me on it.
