Utica Peregrine Falcon Update for May 20, 2018 –
It was slightly cool with intermittent rain last night. Astrid spent the night in the nest brooding the three chicks. Food was brought to the box at 3:36 and then at 4:20. The earlier meal was a cuckoo. The second meal was a large hunk of a dove or Pigeon. That meal went on for some time. After dawn, Astrid was out of the box for a little while. She brought more food in at 6:42 and conducted a feeding. After the meal Astrid flew over to the State Building and landed on the same ledge as her mate. That was different. If they were conversing, we couldn’t hear them. She was back to the box at 7:33. She spent a little time cleaning up the scraps of food that were scattered around the box. Meanwhile the chicks were all together in a heap at the center of the box. Deb said that the snow men had become a snowbank! Following her stint at housekeeping, Astrid was out and Ares was in, but then he left only a few minutes later. Astrid came back at 7:50. Rain was falling by this point and it was time to brood the chicks again. Ares sat out the rain on a high ledge of the State Building.
Astrid left the box at 9:51. She landed on the State Building near Ares. He then dove off his perch and screeched up to the box. He considered the hyper active nestlings for a moment and then he was out again. He zoomed through the canyon and around the State Building. We thought that maybe he was looking for stored prey to bring over, but when he returned to the nest, he had nothing. He then picked up a bird’s leg from the floor of the box and put it into the mouth of one of the chicks. The chick tried to swallow it, but then one of its siblings grabbed it away – even pulling it out after it had almost completely disappeared down the first chick’s throat. Soon all three were trying to get the leg. Ultimately it was the smallest chick that managed to somehow swallow it. Astrid came home shortly after this event. She brooded for about a half hour and then left the box again. She was back with a meal at 10:56. It was a big chunk of something unrecognizable. After the meal, Astrid resumed brooding and Ares stayed on a high perch on the State Building. At just before 1 PM, Ares was at the box and practicing his brooding technique. He was doing pretty well especially considering how squirmy the nestlings were. Astrid took over at 1:36. She was in and out a few times. At 2:49, a meal was brought into the box. It was a small item so Astrid dolled it out quickly. Despite how restless the chicks were, within a few minutes she was brooding again. She let out a harsh cackle alarm call at 3 o’clock, but it probably was in reaction to a Turkey Vulture flying over. Neither adult budged from their respective stations.
By 3:30, neither parent was at the nest. Evidently the afternoon was warm enough for the nestlings to be left on their own for extended periods. At 4:16, both falcons arrived at the nest box. Both had prey in their talons. Astrid probably had a hunk of a dove and Ares had an intact cuckoo. She came into the box to feed out her contribution and Ares flew off to store his. I suspect the cuckoo will make another appearance in some upcoming meal. By 5:09, the clouds had finally broken and Astrid needed to resort to shading. Not for long though, soon she was out and taking a variety of perches around the canyon. Both parents did periodic chick-checks at the box. At 6 PM, after seeing some movement in an office adjacent to the nest box, Astrid swooped back and forth in front of the windows for a few minutes. Ares went and guarded the box during this incident. An hour later, the parents were doing quite a bit of flying around. At one point Ares was perched on the steeple and Astrid displaced him. That’s shadow of things to come once the nestlings become fledglings. Displacing dad from his perch is a favorite pastime of juvenile Peregrines. At 7:44, Ares came to the box with prey. It looked like he was going to get away with doing a feeding and then suddenly Astrid piled in, grabbed the food and began plucking it like mad. She gave a nice lesson in plucking to the assembled chicks. After the feeding, Astrid and Ares took perches on the steeple and the State Building. Astrid was back in the box before 9 PM and Ares remained visible on the State Building for some time after that. That seemed to be it for the day’s action. Good night, falcons.