Today started out cool again with temperatures in the twenties, but the mercury made it into the low 40’s by early afternoon. Today the winds were not as strong as they had been in recent days. In the very early morning, we were blind to what was happening in the falcon box and in the canyon. All of our cameras went out at 1 AM. Fortunately, Deb was able to get them back on line by 6:15 AM. It only took going in to work early on a Sunday morning! When she arrived in the parking she could see one falcon was on the State Building and one at the box. That’s doing it the old fashioned way! With the cameras streaming again, we could confirm that there was no egg in the nest. It now seems very unlikely that our falcons are going to break their early egg-laying record date of March 26th, which had been set in 2016. That’s all well and good. Only two of four eggs hatched that year and we believe that cold temperatures in late March had a lot to do with that. At 6:30, Ares was in the box giving long calls. We didn’t know if he had given Astrid a food tribute or not this morning. There seemed to be at least a portion of a bird carcass on the Hotel. Its possible Astrid fed on it there before shoving it over and essentially storing it. By 7:00, we hadn’t seen Astrid in a while and Ares had been calling to her with long screech calls. Finally she showed up on one of the steeple perches. Eight minutes later, the pair mated right there on the steeple. During the next few hours, Astrid was out of view again, but Ares made several visits to the nest box. Meanwhile, Pigeons were having a field day at some of the falcons’ favorite hangouts. They were walking around on ledges and roof tops and acting like they didn’t have a care in the world. Even after Ares pursued one of in their ranks, all the others kept on with their prancing and fluttering. At 10 o’clock, Ares screeched back to the nest. He was highly excited, which was an indication that his mate was nearby. Sure enough, she jumped into the box and the pair shared a ledge display. She took the west side of the “dance” floor this time, which was unusual. In fact she was standing in Ares’ prized scrape, which he had to be pleased about. After about six minutes of the pair profoundly bowing to each other, Ares left the box. Astrid remained to do some housekeeping. She made three scrapes on the east side of the floor.
At 10:30, the falcons were acting somewhat oddly. While at the box, Astrid appeared to become agitated. She began giving loud chirping-type alarm calls. Ares arrived and he too chimed in with his own chirp notes. She reacted to his presence by bowing and seemingly requesting mating, but then she moved out on to the perch of the east veranda and resumed her vocalizations. After a few minutes of this, she took off and he followed after her. Was there an intruder in the canyon? Not that we saw. Could there have been a migrant raptor flying way above the State Building? Well, maybe. Lots of migrants have been passing through the region this past week, including a few species that could give the falcons some grief – namely, Golden Eagles and other Peregrine Falcons. Neither falcon was seen again until Ares came into the box at 11:30. Right after he arrived, his calling reached a fevered pitch. That meant he had obviously seen his mate. Sure enough, Astrid landed on a window ledge just west of the nest box. She called a few times and then was gone. Ares took off after her again. He doesn’t like to let her out of his sight at this time of year. Just before noon, Ares was up at his lookout perch on top the State Building. A few moments later he was at the box. Astrid came flying in and then zoomed by our roof camera. She again landed on a window ledge west of the nest box, but this time she was looking up and giving long and somewhat breathy wailing calls. She may have been looking at a Red-tailed Hawk that was flying high over the territory or perhaps she saw something else. Falcons do have much keener eyes that we do and they possess the ability to focus in on distant objects far better than we or our cameras can. Perhaps she saw something more ominous than the hawk. She flew off at 12:11 and was quickly out of our view. Predictably, Ares launched out after her. At 12:25, Astrid arrived at the cross-perch and she seemed only slightly less anxious than she had been earlier. Ares tried to mate with her, but he came down at the wrong angle and had to abort. When he came back he went directly into the box. He wanted her to come in for a ledge display but she wanted to mate. Both were being very stubborn. After the ten minute standoff, she left and went to the Hotel ledge but wasn’t there for long. At 1:15, Ares was perched on the steeple, but he didn’t stay there long either. He soared off to the west – possibly following after Astrid. Fifteen minutes later he was back at the box and all amped up. He left quickly. Astrid had just caught a Pigeon and was disassembling it on the Hotel ledge. Ares took a perch further down the same ledge where he could monitor his mate while she dined. Astrid proceeded to eat nearly the entire thing in one sitting. Ares took a little piece that became dislodged while she was tearing into it. While she was feeding, Ares took about five different perches – keeping watch for Hyenas, we reckon. After her Palm Sunday meal, Astrid took a perch on the steeple and did some preening. Her crop was so big it looked like a feathered goiter on her neck – albeit a regal one! At 2:15, they mated there on the steeple. Ares went over to the Hotel and tried to make a meal out of the scant remains left there. He then came back to the box and did some tinkering with his excavation project. The falcons mated again at 3:05.
When Ares next returned to the box, he made a scrape on the opposite side of the box from where his mega scrape is. He was working in the place where Astrid usually makes her scrapes. At 4 PM, they mated on the steeple, and then did the same thing again only ten minutes later! At just before 5:00, both falcons came to the box for a very unconventional display. He was inside the box and she was on the east veranda. Both were vocalizing like mad. She was waltzing around the veranda in an almost frolicsome manner as if she had just discovered Shangri-La. Soon she was swooping around the canyon and putting on a big aerial show. He seemed to be content to just watch her from the box, but then he was up too. We lost track of them for about 15 minutes, and then he was back at the nest and calling. She landed on the north face of the State Building and that’s where they mated. Ares then returned to the box, hopped onto his scrape and moved some stones around. It looked like he ate a few, which isn’t unusual. At 5:57, he left but was back only a minute later with some well processed prey. He flew by Astrid’s perch on the State Building and then came back to the box. When he came back this time he started feeding on the prey right there on the cross-perch. Astrid then came up to the box (or just short of it) as if to take the meal and then diverted over to the steeple and requested mating. He flew by her with the food a few times and then came back to the box. He then unilaterally decided to finish the meal himself. At 6:30, Astrid flew off and was out of our camera’s view for a while. Ares went up to his lookout on the roof of the State Building. At 7:18, he returned to the box and then things got lively. Astrid had just flown up to take Ares’ place on the roof when an intruder (likely a male Peregrine) flew in from the north and buzzed right over Astrid’s head. Ares left the box and flew in to intercept. With wings flapping at full speed he went around the east side of the State Building. The stranger then flew back towards the north with Ares on his heels. Astrid remained on the roof until about 7:45 and then, presumably, she went off to her night perch. Hopefully it wasn’t long before Ares did the same. And that was just one day in the life of the Utica Peregrine Falcons.
