Astrid Spends a Portion of the Night in the Nest Box – Egg # 1 Can’t be Too Far Away Now

It was a cool morning followed by a somewhat warmer afternoon with temperatures eventually reaching into the forties. Again it was sunny for most of the day. Astrid arrived at the nest box at 11:47 PM (technically Monday), which was her earliest arrival for this young breeding season. This time, instead of staying out on the cross-perch as she has in recent nights, she moved into the box and perched on Ares’ mega-scrape. This looked a lot like pre-egg laying behavior to us, but as we’ve learned from previous years, she usually does this a few times before actually producing an egg. She remained in the box until Ares arrived with food at 3 AM. The prey was a Woodcock. She took it and flew over to the Hotel where she proceeded to feed on it. Although it was really too dark to see what was happening over there, but we don’t think she had very much of it before shoving it aside.  Ares stayed at the box for quite a while after that. At 5:30, Ares was back at the box with more food. We couldn’t see the prey well enough to determine what is was, but it was small and mostly de-feathered. One thing was clear, Astrid showed no interest in it. At this point she was on the State Building and remained there until about 6:30. As for Ares, he came and went from the box another couple of times in rapid succession. The second time, he no longer had the food. At 8:12, Astrid was relocated on the State Building. Twenty minutes later both falcons were at the box. Astrid came in doing her famous donkey calls. Sometimes we have to wait until much later in the season to hear those! This display featured a great amount of beaking. At the conclusion, Ares left first, but she didn’t stay for long. At 9:10, Ares was at the box and chirping, but then he flew up to his rooftop lookout on the State Building. Before I could jot that down, he was back to the box again. This happened a few times until at 9:40, both of them were at the nest. She scooted over to the east veranda for a minute and then left.

At 10 AM, Ares was chirping at the box while Astrid was flying around the canyon. She put down on top of a pillar west of the nest box. They mated there a couple of minutes later, and they mated again 15 minutes after that – and then again twenty minutes after that. Apparently the pillar perch was quite conducive for that kind of thing. Directly after the last mating, Ares came to the box clutching a meal. He brought it over to Astrid and tried to give it to her, or use it as a lure to get her back to the box, but she only seemed keen to mate. He went back and forth between the box and the pillar, but he couldn’t change her mind.  At 11:25, they mated on the pillar for the fourth time. Then, just as the sunlight was beginning to illuminate Astrid on her pillar perch, she left and went over to the steeple where she could stay in the shade. Why she wanted to stay in the shade is anyone’s guess. It was a fairly chilly day.  There was an aborted mating attempt on the steeple. After doing some flying around in the canyon and scuttling the local Pigeon flock, the Peregrines both flew to the nest box and at 12:12, they shared a ledge display. About five minutes later, Ares left Astrid to do some work around the box. She bit the lip of the box, picked up stones, did a few scrapes – all stuff like that. For a while, Ares seemed pleased to just be watching her in the nest, but then he dashed out to get her a food tribute. In less than one minute he was at the box with a bat. One might think he’d know by now that Astrid doesn’t like bats. She stood on the cross-perch for a moment and then flew off. He stayed on the lip of the box and ate the bat for lunch. About a half-hour later, at 12:56, Ares came to the box with a fresh Killdeer – the first one that he’s caught this season. He plucked it some and then flew around with it, returned periodically to the box. When it was clear that this gift also wasn’t having the desired effect on his mate, he stowed the food somewhere and then came back to the box to work on his scrape project. A little while after that, Astrid took a perch on the State Building. There was an aborted mating attempt at 1:20 PM. Afterwards, Ares was at the box and working on the other scrape – the one on the east side of the floor. At 3:38, a food exchange happened at the nest box. At close to 5 o’clock, Astrid and Ares were together at the box again, and this time they performed a ledge display. Astrid stayed in the box for some time following the last dance. After a few housekeeping shores, she stood with her back to the box opening and to the sun and she held her wings slightly out. It was a stance we normally associate with shading the eggs. It looked like she was getting some practice in. The length of time she is spending sitting in the box is an indication of the approaching egg-laying. It looks like the event is getting ever closer and may only be a day or two away. I know that we’ve claimed this before, but this time I’m putting two exclamation points after this sentence!! At just before 6PM, the flacons switched out, almost as if one was relieving the other from incubation duties. We didn’t have a confirmed sighting of Astrid after that. Ares came to the box a few times and went up to his rooftop look out, but we couldn’t locate her by camera or by an on-the-ground effort. These birds can still easily elude us despite our technology. He was last seen leaving his perch at close to 8 PM. Likely he went to his night perch. Will Astrid come to the box tonight and lay her first egg of the season? It might be worth a small wager. I for one would hold off on the big bet for just a little while longer.