Rainy but Surprisingly Active Day in the Canyon – Many Feedings for the Tiny Foursome

There were no feedings during the very early morning hours on Saturday. During that time Astrid seemed like she was watching for Ares to appear with food at any minute, but he didn’t come. It’s important to know just how unusual it is for raptors that are not owls to bring in prey during what is essentially the middle of the night. Of course raptors that live in urban areas take advantage of the ambient light created by all the buildings and streetlights. The fact is “true” night doesn’t ever seem to come to downtown and so the falcons are able to exploit that extra time to feed their young. This undoubtedly is one of the reasons urban falcons enjoy greater reproductive success than their wild-nesting counterparts. What we don’t know is how much of the prey that Ares comes up with in the overnight hours represent birds that were caught during the day. Almost certainly the Woodcocks that he is so fond of procuring are captured post sundown. It’s reasonable to conclude that if Ares can be active at night, than so to can be some of his prey species. It was overcast in the early morning  today and it was also a bit warmer than it’s been in recent mornings. Ares finally showed up at the nest box with food at 5:15 AM. Astrid took the food and managed the feeding. She hadn’t even finished giving the chicks their breakfast when Ares showed up again at 5:30 with a second course! During the next 5 minutes Ares came back two more times, presumably with the same prey, but Astrid wouldn’t take it. It was as if he was trying to make up for being a no-show during the early morning hours. Astrid did take the food at 6:20 and fed the nestlings. She conducted yet another feeding about an hour after that one. The latter feeding was interesting since Astrid started to feed, abruptly stopped, left the box and then cane back a minute later and began to feed again. She repeated this three times and we are not sure why. She sometimes behaves this way when loud work is taking place in or around the host building, but that was not the case today. Today we did notice the care that Astrid takes when she walks on or near the chicks. She curls her toes and talons over to the side in a manner not dissimilar to the way Ares takes care to hold his feet during mating – that’s so he doesn’t dig into Astrid’s back. Yet another feeding took place at 9:10. It was almost as if the parents knew the balance of the day was going to be extremely wet and rainy and so they packed as many feedings as possible into the morning. At 11 o’clock Ares arrived at the box, we thought his plan was to take over brooding. However Astrid wasn’t going anywhere. The fact that she tolerated Ares standing in the box next to her for nearly ten minutes was interesting. A little after 12:00, Ares got a chance to be with the brood, but then Astrid came back and relieved him after only ten minutes. At 1:30 PM Ares came in with prey, landed at the box’s outer perch, which is pretty typical. Astrid leaned out from the lip of the box to take the food but somehow they dropped it. Ares immediately dove down after it while Astrid peered straight down toward the sidewalk with her wings completely extended out to the sides. We weren’t sure what happened exactly. Did Ares catch the food while it was still falling or did he scoop it up from the sidewalk or street? These are troubling notions indeed. At any rate, about five minutes after the incident, Ares returned to the box with what we believe was the same food. Astrid took it with no problem this time and conducted a feeding. Rainfall became steadier in the mid-afternoon and Ares was nowhere to be found, at least by our remote camera.  We assumed he was somewhere tucked in and seeking shelter from the rain. At 4:30 Astrid left the box and had been gone for about four minutes when Ares returned to take over brooding. Fifteen minutes later she entered the box with a huge plucked Pigeon. Presumably she caught it and plucked it over on the hotel ledge before hauling it home. All the chicks enjoyed a good long feeding session. After Ares took another short turn in the box during the early evening, Astrid came to the box with the Pigeon leftovers and fed the chicks again. The feeding lasted all of 15 minutes. At 7:15, Ares brought in another meal. Astrid took it and flew away with it while Ares minded the brood. We thought she was just going to store it, but five minutes later she was back and trying to feed the babies again! As it turned out they only took a few bites and toppled over. After that she stowed the food somewhere and came directly back. We expect that there won’t be any more action tonight, but we’ll keep watch just in case.