Utica Peregrine Falcon Update for June 5, 2018 –
Astrid remained in fairly close proximity to the nest throughout the night. Ares brought a small prey item to the box at about 3:30 AM. Astrid popped out of nowhere to take it and she handled the feeding. Ares was back with another course at 4:55. Once again, Astrid fed the chicks. At 6:53, Ares came to the nest with another small item. While on the cross-perch he called for Astrid and when she didn’t come he flew away with the food. Two minutes later, Astrid arrived at the box with an entire Pigeon. Little Petra was first in line to be fed. Milo joined in next, while it was all Angel could do just to get Astrid to notice him. Finally, as the other two dropped back, Angel took center stage and got his fill. (Yes I did say “his” fill. We now believe that Angel, like his other two siblings, is a male Peregrine). The feeding was an amazing half-hour long. At 8:54, Ares was spotted on Hotel Utica plucking and then feeding on something large like a Mourning Dove or a Pigeon. Five minutes later he brought it to the box, Astrid took it from him and then she attempted to interest the chicks in a meal. Petra was the only one interested initially, but then Milo came in for a few bites. Since no one seemed that into the feeding, Astrid picked up the leftovers and flew out with them.
Ares came back to the box at 9:10. He picked up a gory scrap off the floor of the nest and gave it to Angel. Angel took it the corner and tried to break it up but he couldn’t do it so he abandoned it. Ares stood on the cross-perch and watched what the chick was doing with his gift. When he saw it had been abandoned, Ares jumped back into the box, retrieved it from the corner and gave it to another chick. The second chick didn’t want it either and just dropped it back to the floor. At 11:38, Ares arrived at the box and Astrid showed up only seconds later. Ares departed as Astrid hopped into the nest. She didn’t bring food but was set on feeding out the scraps already in the box. While she was tearing strips off of leftovers, one of the chicks, (I think it was Angel) grabbed the food and tried to abscond to the corner with it. Astrid tried to get it back but was having trouble. Finally she managed to grab it free. She started trying to rip it up, but she couldn’t manage to get more than a tiny bit off.
She found the same impermeable piece of Pigeon bone that Ares had kept trying to gift to everybody and she started trying to pawn it off. I wasn’t sure if one of them actually ate it. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s going on in there. The grisly thing did disappear after that – we think that Milo ate it. At 12:17, Ares brought a whole cuckoo to the box. He jumped inside the nest with it like he was going to start feeding the chicks and then Astrid arrived and the jig was up! It seemed like a no-cuckoos rule was being enforced. Ares got out of there and hid the evidence. I think it was the same cuckoo that we later saw on the ledge of the hotel. At 12:30, Ares was back at the nest and this time without the illicit cuckoo. He seemed to have come just to stir up the crowd and that he did. They were charging at him and flapping their wings with abandon. One of the chicks bit at his foot as he tried to jump back onto the lip of the box. That was pretty wild behavior. At 1:25, Astrid got something from the pantry and did a feeding. She did the same thing 20 minutes later. These nestlings were getting fed very well today.
We hadn’t seen Ares on the cams for a while when suddenly he screeched into the canyon and brought prey up to the nest. Astrid came right away and snatched it away. She went to start feeding, but the first chick she approached ran away from her! She then started feeding Angel and then concentrated on the other two. Lots of wing flapping took place in the afternoon. Wing and tail feathers are developing in leaps and bounds. It’s still difficult telling the chicks apart, but Petra is still noticeably whiter than the other two – due to the fact he’s several days younger. At 5:18, Ares was seen on the ledge of Hotel Utica plucking and then eating something. It was really just a chunk, but it was either a Mourning Dove or a Pigeon. It wasn’t a cuckoo, anyway. Ten minutes later he brought it to the nest. Astrid took it from there and did the feeding.
At 5:53, Ares visited the box and got a rise out of the lazy chicks. He left again, only to come right back and jump squarely into the box. He stirred everybody up and then jumped back onto the perch. He then scooted along the west veranda perch all the way to the window ledge beyond; he then hung out there for a while. Ares brought some leftovers over to the box at 7:48. Milo grabbed it from him, took it to the corner and fed on it himself. The other two did some half-hearted outraged begging calls at Ares, but it didn’t last long. Angel tried to get the food away from Milo, but soon gave up. Meanwhile, Astrid was working on her own meal in a window ledge on the State Building. Petra wasn’t even interested in trying to get any of Milo’s stolen food. He fell asleep with his bill up against the lip of the box while staring at Ares out on the perch. He only woke up when Angel came and stomped on his tail. Milo ate most of that meal himself, but there was some gruesome chunk left over that Angel tried to glean something from. After being on the steeple for a while, at 8:50, Astrid came over to a window ledge just east of the nest box. Ares was on the State Building and all three nestlings were asleep. Good night, falcons.