Utica Peregrine Falcon Update for May 26, 2018 –
The falcon saga picks up right where we left off on Friday night and with the 10:28 PM feeding that Astrid handled. In the course of raising five broods, the 9 and 10 o’clock hours has been the rarest time frame for feedings. The anomalies continued when at 10:56, Ares brought more food to the box. However, the lack of interest shown by the chicks and Astrid led him to give up on the feeding plan. The early part of the overnight was packed with meal times. Astrid did a feeding at 12:49, followed by Ares bringing something small in at 1:01. Astrid wasn’t around at that time, so he conducted the feeding. Of course, only seven minutes later she came in with something small and served it to the chicks. He came back with something medium-sized at 1:30, and again fed the nestlings himself. Ares was on a roll. At 2:36, he brought something small and fed the chicks while he remained perched on the lip of the box. He didn’t finish and came back to resume the feeding at 3 AM. Astrid flew by the box during this feeding. At 3:10, she returned to the box with food and reclaimed the feeding enterprise. Ares brought breakfast at 5:21. Astrid took the prey and carried out the feeding. Needless to say, all of the chicks had full crops by dawn.
The nestlings continued practicing their falcon alarm calls. We heard a few examples performed by more than one chick. At 7:30, Astrid came into the box from the east veranda and fed out a few scraps that were lying around. Interestingly, the parents keep a pretty tight watch on the nest through the overnight hours and for much of the morning, but then they monitor from a greater distance as the day wears on. Astrid’s strong desire to procure a Pigeon carried over into today. She made a few plays from the steeple, but didn’t manage to catch anything. At 8:54, Ares brought a meal to the box. Astrid arrived a few seconds later and snatched it from him. She did the feeding. The next meal was at 10:27. Ares brought the prey and Astrid doled it out. A half-hour later, both adults were adorning the Grace Chursh steeple on adjacent perches. As for the nestlings, their plumage now shows the hint a dark eye mask. Their waling is getting a little more coordinated too. More wing flapping and preening is also occurring. The tan tips of their tail feathers are plainly visible. Their vocalizations are becoming heartier and lower in pitch.
At 12:30, Astrid had been on the steeple and Ares had been out of view for quite a while. He came into the canyon with prey and landed on a window ledge west of the nest box. Astrid met him there and took the food. She went over to the box and did a marathon feeding. The prey was likely a Pigeon, but we never got a great look at it and it was partially disassembled when it came in. The nestlings were pretty orderly about the meal. They began in the corner and then each one returned to the corner once they were full. The next in line would then move up to get their share. The chicks had a long snooze after the meal and Astrid and Ares took their break on the State Building. They stayed in place until close to 2 PM. Ares did a chick-check shortly after that. Astrid checked on them at 4:03 and then came back with food. It looked like it was leftovers from the prior meal. There was some tug-o-war and some other less than polite behavior associated with this feeding. Ares brought more food at 4:40. Astrid came and conducted the feeding. The chicks were getting fed in a different part of the box for just about every meal today. This time they were backed up to the whitewash camera. The view from that camera is chick-head level, so watching the video was kind of like being one of nestlings. At one point, one of the chicks (we think it was # 2) got behind Astrid and couldn’t resist biting her tail as it went up and down so tantalizingly. We couldn’t see the prey well enough to hazard a guess as to what it was, but it must have had some bulk to last as long as it did.
From 5 PM to 7:30, the chicks were crashed out around the box. Astrid and Ares were also not doing much; most of the time they were on the State Building. Just before 7:30, the nestlings started stretching, moving around and vocalizing. Next, Ares was up. He stopped at Hotel Utica and then came over to the box. The chicks squealed for a little while and then settled down. Ares stayed on the long perch and preened. A little later on, Astrid assumed the long perch and Ares was over on the State Building. We were surprised that there was no evening feeding. Perhaps more feedings are in store for the overnight session. We shall see.