First Egg May Still be a Few Days Away – Lots of Other Action in the Canyon

Today was cool and mostly clear with a pretty stiff wind that was especially noticeable on rural hilltops and in the downtown canyon. Temperatures were initially in the twenties, but quickly rose into the thirties by morning’s end. Astrid first came to the box at 3:19 AM. She stayed quiet on the cross-perch and didn’t even enter the box until Ares brought food to her at 4:38. The prey appeared to be a woodcock, Astrid grabbed it and flew over to the Hotel to eat it. She fed for close to a half hour and then joined Ares at the box for a ledge display. At around 7 o’clock, Astrid launched after something and Ares followed her. It’s hard to believe she’d go after prey so soon after having such a long feed. At 8:30, the falcons aborted a mating attempt, but then they managed a successful one only 15 minutes later; and that was confirmed by sound only. If Ares gives a chatter call that’s at least six seconds long, then the mating was close to full duration. His vocalizations were loud so we knew Astrid was close by, but where she was we didn’t know. Finally she was located. She was on one of the steeple perches.

Mating on the State Building

At 9:35, the pair came to the box and shared a ledge display. They were beak to beak for the entire three minute dance. Astrid inspected the box afterwards. She slowly circled the floor, did some house cleaning and made a scrape. Ares returned with a gift for her less than five minutes later. He hoped into the box with it, but she declined to take it and flew out instead. At 10:00, there was a failed mating attempt on the steeple. Not long after that, Astrid flew off to the south. She was flying fairly low and didn’t seem to be in pursuit of anything, but then again she was out of view very quickly. At the time we weren’t sure were Ares was, but suddenly he darted past on rapid wingbeats. He was following her. At 10:20, Ares returned to the nest box, and from there he went to his lookout post on top of the State Building. He began giving his cackle alarm call, but stayed on his perch. He was initially looking to the southwest and then shifted his attention to the north. What was he looking at? A distant raptor flying over, perhaps? He soon stopped and began preening. At 10:37, we located her on the Hotel ledge. A few minutes later she cruised over to the State Building and shortly afterwards, the pair mated again. At 10:50, Ares took a steeple perch while Astrid remained on the State Building.

At 11:15, they were both in the air. She landed on the steeple and then moved back over to the State Building. They mated there at 12:15. Fifteen minutes later, Astrid flew off and as expected, Ares followed right behind her. Ares came back to the box at 1 PM. He was calling continuously and getting very worked up. Obviously he saw Astrid, but we couldn’t find her with either PTZ camera. Finally she put down on the State Building and we knew Ares hadn’t seen a mirage. As far as we know, not much happened in the early to mid-afternoon, but our monitoring was spotty during that time. We know that both falcons were on the State Building for a while; Ares was on his roof perch. After 3 PM, he was seen coming to the box a few times. During his visits, he worked on his trench. At 4 o’clock, the pair had a ledge display at the box. These was no beaking; the two participants simply bowed to each other from either side of the box. Five minutes later, Ares flew out. After he left, Astrid had another self-guided tour of the box. She checked out Areas’ tour de force creation. Soon they can be the first Peregrine Falcons on their block to have an in-ground pool. Astrid did two scrapes of her own on the other side of the box and then, of all things, she made two scrapes in Ares’ quarry. The pair continued to be up and down and in and out for a while after that. For that reason they were hard to keep track of remotely. At 4:50, the pair mated. Ares did some fancy flight maneuvers before coming back to the box. Both were on the State Building by 5:20, and they mated there twenty minutes later. Just before 6 PM, Ares brought food to the nest box. He tried to give it to Astrid, but she had no interest in it. He left and then came back a few minutes later without the prey. She went over to the Hotel and he met her there. He tried again to give her the food. At one point they almost looked like they were doing a ledge display, but it was just Ares, trying to coerce his mate into taking the prey. She wasn’t amenable. At 6:30, the pair mated again on the State Building, but it was on the short side, so it may not have been an effective mating. A half-hour later, Ares had prey again (maybe it was the same prey from earlier). He flew back and forth in front of Astrid a couple of times.  He tried his best to entice her over. It worked – she came to the box, she followed him over, grabbed the food from him and ran. She was feeding on the Hotel shortly after. Once she finished her meal, she flew. We reckoned that she went back to her night perch. Ares disappeared at 7:30 PM. Both were off to their night perches. Goodnight birds.