A Busy Night of Feedings & A Pre-Fledge Watch Event

Last night (Tuesday night and Wednesday morning) was a particularly active one for the Utica Peregrines. Many nocturnal feedings took place. The first one came at 10:25 PM; the second one was less than an hour later. At 11:04 PM there was a longer feeding (15 minutes). That one was cut short when Astrid abruptly left. She returned at 11:54 PM and resumed feeding for a few minutes. Ares brought more food at 12:16; Astrid took it, but again, fed only briefly. This pattern was repeated at 2:24 and again at 2:55 when Ares showed up with a cuckoo. At 3:30, Ares brought a small item to the box and waited on the perch for nearly an hour for his mate to arrive. Finally, Astrid slipped in at 4:26 with what appeared to be a portion of a pigeon. During the last two nights, Ares took the initiative and began feeding the nestlings himself. However, this time he reverted back to the old way, and he patiently waited for Astrid to come and carry out the feeding. Of course when Astrid finally did show up, she already had food with her, so she blasted by Ares and just began feeding the chicks. Ares quietly leaned into the box and passed his contribution to her. She unceremoniously heaped in on the pile and continued feeding. During this feeding, one of the nestlings managed to swallow an entire bird leg. By 8:45, Astrid became annoyed at the activities in the offices located near the nest box. She went on the box’s east veranda and steadily peered at the blocked-off window – no doubt just waiting for it to make a false move. At 10:00 AM, Ares brought more food and Astrid served it to the nestlings. We thought there may have been an intruder in the canyon during the noon hour, but we were unable to confirm it with our PTZ camera. There were some sharp calls heard, and the falcon pair darted around the State Building a few times and then zoomed off to the north. A review of the PTZ recording revealed no 3^rd falcon. At 12:30 PM, Astrid had come back to the box. While she was there, Ares came over, hopped in the box and did a survey of the nestlings. This was something that he probably didn’t have to do since Astrid was already standing guard at the box. We think that was Astrid’s opinion as well given the harsh note she uttered in Ares direction. At 2:00, food was brought to the nest and at 4:00, more was brought in. The latter prey was a Blue Jay. Astrid only fed out a small portion of that meal and then abruptly flew off to store the leftovers on the State Building. The chicks appeared full and lazy by then. It had gotten quite warm out and they seemed to be more interested in getting their beauty sleep. In the evening, we (The Utica Peregrine Falcon Project) had a semi-official pre-Fledge Watch meet up in the downtown canyon. The object was to monitor the adult falcons for an hour or so and let out guests know what they could expect to see and experience during actual Fledge Watch. The falcons were semi-active while we were there. Highlights included Astrid and Ares sailing out on a short hunting foray to the northeast. Ares retrieved leftovers from the State Building and brought it to the nest box. Astrid rendezvoused with him, took the food and conducted a short feeding. It was good to see and hear the falcons in real life as they went about their business in the canyon. We will be there again next Wednesday evening if anyone is interested in joining us.