The day began on a cool note but a significant warmup was in store. Temperatures peaked out near 60 degrees. Ares came to the box with a fresh Woodcock at 5:20 AM and Astrid was right on his heels. He waited there on the perch with the bulky sandpiper dangling down from his left foot, but Astrid made no move to take it. After a few minutes, he flew off with the prey and stored it somewhere out of view. Soon both falcons were perched on the State Office Building. Just after 6:30 AM, the pair converged at the box again and shared a spirited ledge display. Following the dance, Ares dashed over to a perch on the State Building and Astrid ingested a few small stones from the floor of the nest box. There’s nothing quite like stones for breakfast!
The first mating of the day took place on the State Building at 7:50. Directly after that, Astrid made a very loud arrival to the box (she actually startled Deb in her office!) Ten minutes later, the pair mated again – this time on the nest box’s long perch. At just before 9 AM, Ares was seen feeding on something over on the hotel ledge. It wasn’t clear what the prey was, but it wasn’t the Woodcock he tried to give to Astrid earlier. Only a few minutes later, he gifted the leftovers to Astrid. She took them over to one of the steeple perches and made short work of it – tearing away at it like she hadn’t eaten in a week. At 10:30, Astrid flew from the steeple and Ares flew right after her. He does like to keep close tabs on his mate particularly at this time of year. He was back at the box with another gift at 11:00. This time it appeared to be a Red-winged Blackbird. She came promptly to take it off his hands. Again, she took her meal over to the steeple and polished it off. Fifteen minutes later, there was a failed mating attempt. Astrid was too close to the wall of the steeple and Ares didn’t have enough clearance to come down on her. These things happen.
The falcons were somewhat hard to keep track of in the early afternoon, but we don’t think they were very active, that is besides Ares’ compulsive visits to the nest box. In the second half of the afternoon, the pair stayed mostly in view – perched on the State Building. Ares continued visiting the box regularly and at 4 PM, he landed on the cross perch with a Woodcock. It appeared to be the same one that he tried to give to Astrid in the early morning. Now it seemed to be headless and that, no doubt, made it easier to carry around. Again, she showed no interest in it so he returned it to the larder. We probably haven’t seen the last of that prey. Things in the canyon were remained status quo for the balance of the day. Astrid remained on the State Building and Ares bounced in and out of the nest box at irregular intervals. Rain arrived with strong winds in the early evening, but didn’t alter their behavior much. A group of crows flew right through the heart of the canyon and were barely acknowledged by the falcons. One crow flew very close to Astrid, but elicited no response. Finally Ares left his perch on the north face of the State Building at just before 6 PM, and Astrid followed about five minutes later. Goodnight falcons.
