Today started out cool and partly cloudy, but it became warmer and more overcast as the day progressed. Temperatures were in the twenties early on, but quickly reached into the low 40’s by mid-day. Light rain started falling in the early evening. Astrid arrived at the nest box almost precisely at midnight. Inside the box she sat on one scrape and then shifted to the other. She flew out at 2:49 AM, and Ares arrived one minute later. He only had a short stay. However, both came back to the box together at 3:26. Ares had prey, instead of gifting to his mate he abruptly left with it. Meanwhile, Astrid remained at the nest. At 4 o’clock Ares was back with the food and this time Astrid grabbed it and left. We don’t know where she brought it or if she consumed it. She was back at the box at 5:30. This time she was on the cross-perches and not on one of the scrapes so we knew egg-laying couldn’t be imminent. A half-hour later, both were at the box. Ares had a fresh-looking woodcock in his talons. Astrid wasn’t interested in taking it so he went off and stored it. He came back and the pair mated on the cross-perch. That was the first mating at the box in quite some time. At 6:04, he was back with different prey. Astrid didn’t like the looks of that either and three minutes later she had flown. She wasn’t seen for quite some time after that. Of course Ares was in and out of the box. At 7:49, he was feeding over on the Hotel ledge. Ten minutes later he brought a chunk of leftovers to the box, but as he waited for Astrid to come and take it, he kept nibbling on it. It was becoming a less and less significant gift. Astrid flew in from the southwest, but she didn’t stop at the box. It wasn’t until 9:26, that we saw her land on the cross-perch. Ares saw her coming first was giving over-the-top, excited chirping calls. She hopped into the box and they kind of did a ledge display. It was all bowing, no beaking, and no footwork. At the anticlimactic conclusion of the dance, Ares left the box, but came back only five minutes later for an encore. The second performance was almost identical to the first and featured little more than bowing. Astrid was occasionally shutting one eye during it. After Ares did his trademark cowabunga type dive out of the box for the second time, she did some housekeeping, which included biting the lip of the box. Fifteen minutes later, Ares came back to the box. Were they going to perform a third display? Nope. Astrid left. She landed on the State Building for a short time and then came back to the Adirondack Bank and perched on a pillar just west of the nest box. She was there between 11:15 and noon, and during that time the pair mated twice. After each time, Ares returned to the nest box. At noon Astrid flew around the canyon and put down on the State Building. They mated there at 12:27. It’s a bit awkward mating there since the ledge Astrid was on had very little headroom. Poor Ares had to really scrunch himself in there and do it in a way that allowed his wings to be extended. It’s hard work!
At 1:44, Ares was at the box again. He had been stopping by regularly, while Astrid, on the other hand, was not in evidence. Ten minutes later, Ares was calling excitedly (as he normally does when he sees her), but we didn’t pick her out on the cameras. Before three o’clock, Ares made three more visits to the box. During the last one he spent some time wiping his bill on the perch as if he had just eaten or had given food to his mate. Since not enough time had elapsed between his last two visits, we thought the latter scenario more likely. Ten minutes later, Deb located Astrid on the south face of the State Building – one of the many places our cameras cannot see. It looked like she had a good-sized crop, so perhaps Ares had dropped off something for her. Through the late afternoon, Ares continued coming to the box and occasionally giving long wailing calls. At 4:50, his mate finally flew in from the south side of the State Building. She put down on a ledge on the north face of the building, but only stayed there for two minutes. Then she was off to somewhere else out of camera view. Ares was up too, but he soon came back to the box and resumed with his angst-filled wailing. As 6 PM, he made a quick dash up to his lookout post on the roof of the State Building. Fifteen minutes later, he dove back into the box. Again, he could barely contain himself – chirping and nervously twitching. At the risk of anthropomorphizing, he was acting like the classic expectant father, except he didn’t have three cigarettes lit at the same time. He obviously saw her and expected her to come into the canyon, but she didn’t. At 6:24, we saw a falcon feeding on the Hotel ledge. We thought it was Ares, since he had just left the box. It turned out to be Astrid. She was feeding very quickly as if she expected a troupe of hyenas to come in at any time steal the food away from her. After a few minutes she flew over to the County Building and wiped her bill down. Ares came back to the box and started making highly spirited vocalizations and nervously moving around the box. He flew over to her like he was going to attempt to mate, but pulled away at the last minute and returned to the box. At 6:40, she launched again and Ares was up right after her. We don’t know which way they went, and we thought they may have gone to their night perches early, on account of the rain. Nope. She showed up again; this time on the west veranda and he landed in the box. They had a loud conversation and then she went back to the County Building. A few minutes later she was up again. This time she put down on the north face of the State Building. Ares came back to the box, but didn’t stay long. He flew over and mated with her. Following that, he did a few flybys in front of the building and landed on the roof. The pair remained visible on the respective perches until 8:00 PM. Will Astrid lay her first egg of the season tonight? There’s a chance. Stay tuned!
