It was mostly clear today with temperatures in the 30’s and moderately strong winds developing by the afternoon. These make for favorable flying conditions for falcons and the Utica pair ultimately took full advantage of it. Astrid was in view on the State Building by five o’clock this morning. Ares joined her on an adjacent perch about 45 minutes later. At 6:30, there was a failed mating attempt and directly following that, Ares came to the nest box. Astrid came right over and the pair performed a short ledge display. As is typical these days, Ares made several visits to the box during the morning hours. Astrid was seen on the State Building for a while and then, following a lengthy absence from our view, she showed up on the ledge of the hotel. At 11:15, Ares was at the box and Astrid was on the State Building when a third Peregrine flew through the canyon and landed on the roof of the same building. Ares immediately flew into action. The stranger saw him coming and left his perch. Meanwhile, Astrid hadn’t moved. The stranger flew around the west side of the State Building and Ares was right with him. Just the fact that Ares was pursuing (and not Astrid), made it more likely the stranger was a male. After what may have been the quickest and least fierce dogfight in history, the interloper made a quick exit toward the north. Right then, Astrid came to the nest box and Ares joined her for another brief ledge display. They may have mated following the dance, but we couldn’t be sure of that. By this point (12:15 PM), Deb was in the canyon and got to watch Astrid and Ares soar high above the State Building; this time with a Red-tailed Hawk. They proceeded to escort the probable migrant out of the territory. Following that, Ares pulled in his wings and dove in a flawless “J” pattern to make a perfect landing right on the rim of the nest box. Astrid came in next and the two performed yet another ledge display. This dance featured a considerable amount of beaking behavior and certainly more than the previous two.
After the display, Ares left the box and zoomed around the canyon. Deb saw him nearly hit a crow that was flapping his way by the Grace Church steeple. The crow squawked as Ares zipped past him. Meanwhile, Astrid was doing housekeeping inside the box. She was digging in the corner, biting at the rim of the box, and she also made at least one scrape into the stones with her talons. Following those activities, she stood on the cross-perch at the box for a while. Ares was next seen at 12:45 PM; he was flying higher and higher above the State Building. This time there didn’t seem to be an interloper, it was more likely he was engaged in hunting. Sure enough, 15 minutes later he was seen plucking prey at the nest box. The catch appeared to be a starling. We figured that he would just pluck it and present it as a gift to Astrid (who was waiting at the box), but he started feeding on the meal and seemed to be in no hurry to give it up. At about 1:10 PM, Ares finally came to the box with the leftovers. He stood on the cross perch with the gift in his talons. She bent outward from inside the box with her wings spread out for balance. She managed to grab the prey in her bill, but in doing so, she leaned in too far and fell down through the gap between the cross perch and the rim of the box. Ares zoomed down right behind her. Well, nobody expected that to happen! Fortunately the distance to the ground is great and she had plenty of time to get her wings working. She flew with her meal over to the Hotel ledge and wolfed it down. Meanwhile, Ares returned to the box.
For a while during mid-afternoon, both falcons took a siesta out of our camera view. Deb found them on the east side of the State Building. Ares came to the box again just after 4:30 PM. He was chirping and seemed ready to resume wild falcon activities. A half hour later, he brought prey to the box (another starling). Astrid was perched on the north face of the State Building at that time, but she wouldn’t come over to take the gift. He flew through the canyon, buzzed by her and returned to the box four times – still carrying the prey, but Astrid showed no interesting in coming to take it. The fifth time, he came back without it. Most likely he stored it in his pantry on the State Building. Ares spent some time on the box’s cross perch before he began looking almost straight down at something – we weren’t sure what. Sure enough, when he left he dove almost straight down – probably in pursuit of some bird. The next time we saw him he was on the roof of the State Building. By 5:30 PM, both falcons were out of our view and would appear to have gone off to their night perches. It was the end of a very active day in the canyon.
