Utica Peregrine Falcon Update for May 8, 2018 –
It was very cool in the early morning – temperatures were in the high 30’s. That changed very quickly after sunrise. The temperature eventually got up to around 70 degrees. The wind was light and cool and the sky stayed mostly clear. It was good weather for falcons.
Astrid had returned to the nest box at 7:49 last evening. As usual, she stayed on the eggs all night long and until Ares relieved her at 5 AM sharp. He had appeared on the Sate Building close to an hour before that. After not being in view for a while, Astrid showed up on the State Building at 6:07. The pair switched again at 6:32. During that switch we got to view the eggs and from one camera’s perspective there was a white spot visible on one egg. Both Deb and I looked at it but couldn’t say conclusively what it was. Was it pigment or a pip? From the angle we viewed it, there didn’t seem to be any dimension to it and a pip should show some dimension. It is a hole after all. Ares was next seen on the State Building at 6:45. An hour later Ares flew after something, missed it, and came back to the south side of the steeple. At 8:53, he was on Hotel Utica. Ten minutes later he stretched out his wings and flew to the east. At 9:33, the pair switched and Ares came on to the eggs. No pips were visible during the changeover. They changed again at 10:25, which made for a very short shift for Ares. Does Astrid sense a hatch is near? In past years she has not wanted to leave when a hatch was near.
At 11:15, Ares was getting some sun on the ledge of Hotel Utica. He laid down and spread his feathers. After one o’clock, Astrid was doing a lot of vocalizing. Ares came to the box at 1:30. He tried to take over from her, but she wasn’t having it. He flew over to the steeple instead. She continued calling, but obviously she didn’t want to be relived. She was also jostling the eggs a lot. This all seemed to be consistent with her past behavior in past years when a hatch was near. Still, at every switch, we saw no pipped eggs in the clutch. At 2:33, Ares tried to relive Astrid again, and this time she did leave. Ares was taking his shift at the hottest time of the day. He did about 1/3 shading and 2/3 sitting on the eggs. At times he looked very stressed. Astrid came to the box at 4:30, but this time it was Ares who didn’t want to leave. Astrid stayed with him for about 6 minutes and then the rest of the afternoon was her own. He did plenty of jostling of the eggs, just like she had been doing. This is also behavior we’ve seen before. Moving the eggs in this way helps coax the chicks inside to break out.
At 7:11 PM, Ares got off of the eggs and left the box. It was abundantly clear that one of the eggs had an obvious pip in it and quite possibly a crack as well! It seemed to be the first egg that was laid, but we still need to confirm that. This means that we may have the first hatch of the season as early as this evening. Astrid came into the box about a minute later and got right on the eggs. At 7:53, I could finally hear what no doubt Astrid and Ares had been hearing all day. The chick in the pipped egg was calling. Astrid continued with her periodic jostling of the eggs. By 7:45, Ares had left his perch on the State Building. Perhaps he went off to his night perch, or maybe he was out hunting for the new mouth to feed. At 8:15, it looked like a second egg may also be pipped, but that needs to be confirmed.