Utica Peregrine Falcon Update for April 2 2018
It was seasonably cool this morning, but temperatures got up into the 50’s by midday. It was mostly sunny and the wind picked up in the afternoon. It was favorable conditions for falcons, surely. Astrid settled in to the nest box at 6:20, Sunday night and stayed with her new egg until 12:35 AM. She flew out at that time, only to return at one o’clock to resume her guard duty. She is not engaged in full incubation yet, so the egg is often left on its own; merely guarded and not sat upon. Ares brought Astrid a Woodcock at 2:20. She took it over to the Hotel ledge to eat. She ate only a small portion before shoving the leftovers to the back of the ledge and returned to the nest at 2:40 AM. The nest and egg were alone in the interim. At 6:06, a food transfer took place at the box. Astrid took her gift over to the Hotel ledge and this time she ate the whole thing. Whatever it was, she liked it better than Woodcocks. When she was finished at 6:30, she landed on the steeple. He came to the box and did some of his long wailing calls and then at 6:45, they mated on the steeple. They both returned to the box at the same time, but she didn’t stay. Instead she flew back to the steeple and he drew box duty for a while. Soon enough he took to the air again. Both falcons interacted at the box at 7:45, but Astrid left directly following that meeting.
Though the morning, Ares continued visiting the box periodically, but Astrid stopped taking shifts in the mid-morning. In fact, hours were passing and we weren’t seeing Astrid in the canyon. Ares didn’t seem to be overly anxious about it, and he normally gets very agitated when he doesn’t know where she is. Deb got a call about a dead falcon found about a mile or so southeast of the canyon. Both of us get calls like this at least several times a year, and they usually turn out not to be falcons. Most involve Cooper’s Hawks or Sharp-shinned Hawks. Of course, since we hadn’t seen Astrid in a while, the call took on a more troubling aspect. Deb went to collect the bird. Indeed it was a Peregrine Falcon. It was an un-banded first-year male. Perhaps this was an intruder the pair had been dealing with recently. The unfortunate young falcon had been struck by a vehicle, but we couldn’t rule out that it had been in a fight as well. It had sustained multiple injuries and perhaps one or two were consistent with being in a dogfight with another Peregrine. We will never know for sure. The stranger had been on the periphery of Astrid and Ares’ territory, so it’s possible there was an altercation of some kind. Most likely, since he was in juvenile plumage, they more likely would have only chased him out and not really harmed him. However, they do get more serious about incursions into their territory once they begin nesting. After identification, the DEC was notified and the bird was turned over to them.
At 10 AM, Astrid came back into the fold and the pair had a noisy reunion at the nest box. It was a ledge display but there was no beaking or fancy footwork involved – only conversation. Directly after, Astrid flew out, but then came back twenty minutes later and took over guarding the egg. As it turned out, her shift was a short one; Ares came back at 11 o’clock and the pair switched out. There was an aborted mating attempt just before noon on the State Building. Following that, Astrid came to the box for another shif. After she settled down, she began trying to bring up a pellet. Every 30 seconds or so she would thrust her head forward, point her head up and open her bill wide. She did this about a dozen times after which, she quieted down and settled back on the egg. The pair switched out only fifteen minutes later, and Ares went over to the State Building. In few minutes, they mated. After they both changed perches at least a half-dozen times, they mated again – this time on the steeple. At 2:12 they mated yet again on the steeple. Directly after that, Astrid darted up to the box, but didn’t stay. And that’s how it went for the balance of the afternoon really. Astrid didn’t take another shift sitting with the egg. In fact the egg was often left on its own in the box. On a day like this, that is no problem, since it wasn’t too cold and since incubation has yet to begin. At 2:25, Ares came to the box with food. He actually brought it right inside the box. Astrid wasn’t coming to get it and we joked that he was going to try to feed the egg, but that didn’t really happen. Ten minutes later, Astrid did come over to take the food from him. She fed over on the steeple. At 3:30, the pair mated on the State Building and they did it again about an hour later – and then again; that time exactly an hour later. We were beginning to see a pattern!
At 5:52, Ares brought prey over to a ledge just west of the nest box. He was plucking like mad for a few minutes and then he brought it briefly to the box. Without a good look, we couldn’t identify the thing, but it seemed big. He flew past Astrid a few times with it, but she didn’t seem interested, so he stored it instead. At 6:15 they mated on the steeple. Five minutes later, Astrid was soaring around the canyon. She took a perch on the County Building for a little while and then disappeared from our cameras for about an hour and a half. As it got darker, Ares seemed like he was more than ready to be relieved from egg duty at the box, but she didn’t seem to be in any hurry to return. Finally, at 7:41, she came over and landed on the west veranda. Ares dove out of the box and the pair mated one last time. Directly after that, she came into the box and settled with the egg. He presumably went off to his night perch and she was likely in place for the night. We don’t expect a second egg to be laid until sometime tomorrow evening. Goodnight falcons.
