Early Intruder & An Eight Meal Day for the Growing Chicks

The falcon chicks had their first feeding at 2:30 AM and their second feeding only an hour later. Ares brought more food to the box at 4:50 AM, but that time Astrid took it and stored it. At 5:28, Astrid gave a major alarm call and took off like a shot out of the nest box. There was an intruder and it was identified as a Peregrine Falcon. It appeared to be just leaving a perch on the very top of the Grace Church steeple when we saw on camera. Ares was quick on the scene, and the resident pair took turns diving at the stranger and driving it out of the canyon and to the east. The PTZ camera was able to follow the action for only a minute before the combatants moved out of range. A&A dove at the intruder at least 6 times and made physical contact with it on at least 3 of those dives. But then only a minute later Astrid was back at the nest box’s perch and calling. The brazen intruder had returned and perched on the west face of the State Building where our camera couldn’t see it. Ares upped it from its perch and chased it off to the north. Only a couple minutes later, Ares was back at the box with food. Astrid took it and began feeding the chicks. It was like nothing had happened. At 5:36, Ares showed up at the box with still more food. Astrid was deep into a feeding and she didn’t acknowledge him there on the perch. He came into the box and started trying to feed the brood too. He was ripping off little pieces of meat and holding them out, but all four chicks were fixated on their mother and didn’t turn around once to look at dad. Poor Ares held out food to the back of the chicks’ heads for about eight minutes before giving up and flying off to store the prey. Had it worked out it would’ve been the first time he got to feed this clutch. The next feeding took place at 10:15. Obviously the chicks were eating very well today. Even so Astrid seemed to be compelling Ares to do more hunting this afternoon. On several occasions she was seen displacing him from his perch. This is a trick that fledglings have used in past years to get Ares to fetch food for them. It seems that they may have learned the trick from Astrid or visa-versa. At any rate, both adults were seen chasing after prey numerous times during the afternoon. At 2:37, Ares was back at the box with fresh prey. Astrid took it and conducted another feeding. Only ten minutes later, Ares was back with more food. This time Astrid ate most of the meal herself before topping off the chicks. At 5:00 PM, Ares returned to the box with a jay. Astrid plucked it right there in the box and then proceeded to stuff her babies again. After that large meal the chicks were splayed out all around the box – some partially covered in jay feathers. Astrid came in with the intention of shading them, but she needed to gather them all up first. Two of them were not cooperating; she moved one with her cupped wing and another she picked up by the scruff of the neck like a mother cat would do with her kittens. Ouch! That was something we hadn’t seen before. At 6:10 PM, Ares was heard screeching, but we couldn’t locate him. We did find Astrid on the ledge of hotel where she was drinking from a puddle. Finally Ares was seen on the steeple perch with prey. At 6:30, he brought it to the nest and Astrid did another feeding. When she was done she flew over and displaced Ares from his perch on the steeple. This time we think this was her subtle way of getting him to take a turn in the box shading the chicks. He gave it a try but had no luck corralling the mob and so Astrid had to come back and do it herself. As I’m finishing up this post, it’s 8:00 PM and Ares had just brought more food to the box. This time, Astrid took it away, I she was going to store it, but right now she’s doing yet another feeding! The chicks look bigger every time we look at them and it’s no wonder given their food intake!