Every night time/early morning is different than last in the falcons’ town. There was no feeding this morning until 3:40 AM, which is late by recent standards. It was somewhat chilly last night and Astrid initially responded by brooding the chicks, but a little after midnight she backed off and moved to the edge of the box. By 1:45 she had left, but presumably was monitoring the nest from someplace nearby. Ares arrived at the box with food at 2:52 AM, and like the night before, he tried to get Astrid to come and do a feeding. However, unlike the previous morning, he didn’t wait very long. Instead he jumped into the box, with prey in his talons and loomed over the nestlings who were (still!) in a tight huddle in the corner. He seemed poised to do a feeding. He plucked a few feathers out of the prey and then just turned and stared out of the box as if waiting for guidance or a call of approval from his mate. It was too dark to tell for sure how the chicks were responding, but from what I could hear and see they didn’t seem to be acting like a feeding was imminent. No, they seem to be ignoring him, as was Astrid. Since Astrid didn’t respond to Ares calls or to his desperate “what do I do now” look, I thought maybe she was out of view of the box, and perhaps even out hunting; it turned out she was perched on the steeple – obviously, in full view of the nest box. She just chose not to come up and do a feeding. Ares did some chirping and a little bit more plucking, but the chicks still weren’t rising to the occasion. Finally, after an awkward half hour passed, he went to the lip of the box and brought his prey with him. At around 3:30, Astrid came over, took the prey, and proceeded to pluck it. Her lively call notes roused all four chicks and as far as I could tell in the darkness of the box, they all fed heartily. “See Ares, this is how it’s done!” It struck me sometime after watching this that we’ve never before seen Ares do a nighttime feeding. Who knew there had to be a special knack to that – certainly not I. The next feeding took place at 5:20 AM. Ares brought in the food and Astrid did the feeding. Another feeding started at 9:50 and went on for over 20 minutes. By the end of it all the chicks and Astrid were sporting full crops. Just before noon, the parents became quite active. The weather was conducive for good flying and they were taking advantage of it to get some hunting in. Both were seen diving off their perches in pursuit of various prey. In the afternoon the nest box was becoming sun-drenched and the chicks were again seeking its shady corners. The parents both came to check on the nestlings periodically and both also took short shifts shading them. At one point the chicks had split up. Two remained in the shaded corner where they have been hiding from our cameras for the past 2 days! The other two had managed to waddle across the box to the opposite corner – once again making it difficult to capture good pictures. When Astrid came back to the box, it was these two adventurous ones that she felt compelled to shade since they were essentially standing in the full sun. Astrid had to spread her wings and sometimes her tail to provide the correct amount of shade to cover these two sunbathers. By 6:00 PM, Ares finally brought in a small meal (a finch). Since it was not enough to satisfy four hungry mouths, he went back out to see what else was available in the canyon area. At 7:03 he brought in another small to medium sized meal and after this feeding the four chicks could all be seen with bulging crops. Shortly after the food-drunk nestlings fell over and went to sleep! Ares came by about 7:21 PM to do a chick check and his landing was anything but graceful. He stayed a few minutes and was off again. By 7:57 he was back with another small offering and decided to try again to feed the young himself. Of course Astrid would have none of it! She swooped in and took over the feeding and made sure it was done just right. The chicks were left alone for a while after that last feeding. Before dark, Astrid retuned and assumed her guard position at the front of the box. It will be another big day tomorrow, I’m sure.
