Utica Peregrine Falcon Update for May 24, 2018 –
It was a little bit on the cool side last night. Despite that, Astrid only spent about half the night in the box and little of that was spent brooding. The nestlings are big enough to keep themselves warm now. When they are chilly they climb onto each other and when they are too hot they spread out and/or find shade. They are becoming more and more independent, even as the sheaths of their primary wing feathers only just start to become evident. When Ares came to the box with prey at 1:52 AM, Astrid wasn’t there to take it. Ares waited on the cross-perch for a little while and then hopped into the box to do the feeding himself. After the feeding he stayed guard at the cross-perch for a while. He left and came back at 2:30, but only stayed for a minute. He brought more food at 3:29, but Astrid was still nowhere to be seen. He went into the box, but no chick raised its head and he didn’t try to feed them. Meanwhile, Astrid was over on the ledge at Hotel Utica. She came back to the nest at 3:35 AM, took the prey from Ares, and carried out a feeding. At 7:23, Ares came to the long perch with a small piece of food. Astrid arrived a few seconds later. She scrambled over the cross-perch (screeching the whole time), leaned over and was just barely able to grab it. She nabbed it but also lost her balance and had to fly through the gap between the box and the perch. She flew in a wide circle, returned to the box, and carried out a short feeding.
At 7:51, Ares came and did a quick chick-check at the box. At the time Astrid was on the west veranda. She hopped onto the long perch and then back to the veranda. It was a move reminiscent of what the nestlings do in the days leading up to their maiden flights out of the nest. About an hour later, Ares was at the box again and giving chirp calls. Astrid was on a nearby perch and began emitting her trademark low donkey calls. Deb noticed that Ares had at least three birds stored in his pantry along the top row of ledges on the west face of the State Building. All were stored tail out, to help them from blowing out in high winds. At 9:10, Astrid arrived on the east veranda. She had prey in her talons. Ares had been on the long perch, but he left as she arrived. The two big chicks were first to be fed. After they were sufficiently stuffed, the little one was in line for his share. By 9:24, they were all full, but Astrid still tried to get them to take more. Finally she gave up and took the leftovers out of the box. Ares did a chick-check at 10:45. A half hour later, we didn’t know where Ares was, but Astrid was on the east veranda and the chicks were in dreamland. At 11:30, Ares came screeching back into the canyon. He took a perch on the steeple and called a few more times. Talk about a dramatic entrance! Soon after, he was at the box on the cross-perch and Astrid was the one out of view.
Astrid landed on the roof of the nest box at about 12:20. She did this yesterday as well. We associate Astrid’s use of the box roof and the verandas with the nestling/fledgling training that normally takes place during the last week before fledging. Indeed, her demonstrations seemed a little premature, but we’re going to argue with Astrid’s judgments. At 1:10, we thought another feeding may have been underway, but it was just Ares trying to feed out a few scraps that happen to be lying in the nest. A cackle alarm call heard at 2:40, didn’t seem to be in reaction to any serious threat. At 2:50 (ish), a feeding was in progress and it was conducted by Astrid. At 3:50, there was yet another feeding. Ares handed prey to Astrid and she did the feeding. Astrid was on the steeple at 4:45, trying to bring up a pellet. After both parents were out of view for a while, Ares came back in and did a chick-check at 5:14. Astrid arrived at the box with food right afterwards and carried out a feeding. Following the feeding, the adults spent a lot of time coming and going from the steeple perches. Both were gone again at 6:20. Fifteen minutes later, Ares darted back into the canyon, did some nice elegant circles between the principle buildings and landed on the steeple. At 6:50, Astrid came and displaced Ares from his perch – now she was on the steeple and he was visiting the nestlings in the box. In a potentially dangerous move, one of the chicks backed all the way up and onto the lip of the box to eliminate. We’ve seen little ones do this in previous years and it always makes us nervous. At 7:10, it appeared that Ares displaced Astrid on the steeple perch! Turnabout is fair play, I guess. Five minutes later, they were both out of view again.
By 8:30, Ares seemed content on his perch at the State Building and Astrid on her steeple perch, but were they going to remain there for at least part of the night? Don’t bet on it.