Temperatures were in the single digits in the early morning. Thankfully, things moderated a bit later on and the mercury surged into the low twenties. Ares first showed up at the nest box at 6:15 this morning. Astrid wasn’t seen until 7:30, when she landed on the State Building. The pair mated twice before 8 PM. Shortly after that, both appeared together at the box, but there was no display; Astrid left right away and flew over to the Hotel ledge. There she remained until 10:20. At some point Ares may have dropped off a tidbit for her. She was seen picking at something small, but it could have been something already on the ledge.
Right before 10:30, the pair shared a ledge display at the nest box. It was shortand Ares left first. Ten minutes later, he was at the box again and she was gone. They had switched out; it was almost as if they’d been sharing incubation duties. All indications are that such a thing is not far off. Astrid appears to be laden – as if egg development is well underway. It’s quite conceivable that egg number one will make an appearance in the coming few days. If it does it would constitute a record early egg-date for this pair and this location.
At just before 11 o’clock, there was a failed mating attempt. At 1 PM, Ares issued an alarm call, but it was probably just a warning to some transient raptor flying over the canyon. Ares didn’t give chase. As a matter of fact, he flew over and mated with Astrid right after the non-incident. Twenty minutes later, Ares came to the box with a starling. He plucked it on the State Building and then flew around the canyon with it a few times. Ultimately he stored it on a ledge. Astrid remained sedentary for most of the afternoon. Meanwhile Ares was out of camera view for several hours. Was he out hunting? At 3:30, Astrid grabbed the starling that Ares had stored earlier, picked at it for a while and then took it over to Hotel ledge and made a meal of it. At 3:50, Astrid and Ares had a “dance” at the nest box. The display was seven minutes long. At 7 PM, Ares flew in with prey, landed on the same ledge as Astrid, and possibly gave her the food. He had a pretty big crop at that time, so he must have been feeding himself. The falcons did some more moving around right before sunset. Ares spent a little time on his “top of the world” perch on the State Building roof, while Astrid soared around to the south side of the building. By 7:10, we were convinced the birds had gone to their might perches.
