Peregrine Breeding Log for June 11 – 12, 2019:
Tuesday, June 11th had a very wet and cool start. It rained overnight and then the rains turned into more of a mist after sunrise. The wind kicked in by mid-morning and was persistent and strong. Sunny skies prevailed by noon, but the wind was still an issue. Astrid was at the nest area during late evening last night. There were no known overnight feedings. Astrid was seen on a pillar to the west of the nest box at 4 AM ish. She made a visit to the box at 5:00. Archie got up on the lip of the box about ten minutes later but didn’t stay un there too long. At 6:00, Astrid came to a window ledge west of the nest, picked up some stored prey and brought it to the box. One of the chicks grabbed it from her and took it to the back of the box. Ares was visible on the State Building at that point. At 6:20, two nestlings were up on the box’s lip. It was Penelope joining Archie in his favorite stunt. She didn’t stay up there very long and Archie came back into the box to pick through some leftovers. At 6:34, Astrid came to the nest and bounced from the long perch to the crossperch. She tried to come into the box a couple of times, but her path was blocked by screeching chicks. Finally, she found a path and made it in. She picked up the food she had brought earlier and started feeding it out. At 6:42, the meal was done, and she was out of the box. Five minutes later Archie and Penelope were on the lip of the box.
At 7:25, Ares brought a starling to the nest. Astrid came and grabbed it, took it into the box and lost it to Rue. She didn’t try to get it back that time. At 7:30, Deb saw the parents soaring through the canyon. Soon they were out of view. At 9:27, they were both on the hotel. One of them had prey. Ares took it to the box; Astrid took it from him, and she lost it to two of the crazy chicks. The nestlings proceeded to have a tug-o-war with it. Keisha won the bulk of the prize, but Archie seemed to be feeding on something as well. By 9:45, Archie was half on the lip of the box and doing a lot of wing flapping. He then had a mad rampage around the box. Following his acting-out session, Rue took his turn at being the crazed one. At 10:42, all were lined up at the front window and watching their mother fly through the canyon. At 11:10, Astrid came into the box with most of a Pigeon. After a brief tugging match with one of the chicks, she started a feeding. Rue was eating and screeching at the same time. At 11:19, Astrid halted the feeding and left the food with Penelope. She went to the crossperch. Rue bit at her tail before she opened her wings and floated off on the winds. After Astrid left, the kids were wild in the box. Rue stomped on Archie a couple of times and then Penelope stepped on Archie. At 11:27, Astrid gave a cackle alarm call from her perch on the steeple. Ares was on the State Building at the time and so we wondered what the issue was. Neither parent left their posts.
At 11:45, Archie jumped back on the lip of the box. At noon, Ares stopped at the box and got the nestlings all excited. Astrid was on the steeple giving alarm calls at 1:20 PM. Both parents were out of view after that. At 1:30, Archie was back on the lip of the box and both parents were visible in the canyon again. Astrid did a chick check at the box at 1:45. Five minutes later Archie was on the box lip again, but this time he was looking over toward the west veranda. At 2:06, Kiesha got up onto the lip of the box for the first time. She wasn’t up for long. At 2:32, all four youngsters were peering out of the box window together. Archie was the only one on the lip. Ares did a chick check a few minutes later. He had hopped over from the east veranda. After he left, both Archie and Penelope were up on the box lip. At 2:52, Ares brought a starling to the box. He tried to sneak it inside, but a kid grabbed it and pulled it to the back. The nestlings were all screeching their heads off at 3:22. They were ready for a meal. Astrid showed up on the steeple shortly after that. By the time she stopped at the box at 3:40, all four chicks were reclined. They squealed but none bothered to get up. I guess they weren’t that hungry. Astrid came to the long perch at 3:45. Astrid’s tail went up and down as the wind buffeted her.
At 3:51, Ares brought food to the nest. Astrid scrambled to get it. She tried to take it into the box but Penelope stole it. Things were relatively calm for a while after that. At 5:58, Ares showed up with more food. It was a small offering. It was immediately grabbed away from him by a kid. Astrid showed up after the fact. Even though he wasn’t the one that grabbed the food, somehow Archie ended up with it. At 6 PM, Astrid landed on the long perch. After that she proceeded to put on a big air show for the nestlings. Flying by the nest at various speeds and at various heights. She did some nice hovering as well. The four nestlings were again all standing in a row, watching with rapt attention as Astrid did her instructional flight. By 6:10, the display was over. The kids were all riled up. Archie grabbed Penelope and made her squeal. At 6:14, he was on the lip of the box again. This time he was peering at the east veranda and considering hopping over. A minute later he was back in the box. Ares had been out of view for a while, but at 6:37, we heard him screeching and the nestlings all seemed to be watching something. Five minutes later both parents were seen together on the hotel. Ares had prey and was picking at it. At 6:49, he arrived at the east veranda with it. Astrid met him there, took the food and a chick grabbed it away from her. Two started feeding on it while Rue screeched. Only a minute later, Ares came to the box with more prey – a Least Bittern this time. Astrid took it and just pitched it into the box and left. She was not happy. She gave a cackle call and then multiple long calls from the perch. Everybody was getting yelled at. She then went to the steeple.
At 6:55, Penelope went up onto the lip of the box again. The other three were pulling at one of the carcasses on the floor. They had a three-way tug-o-war at one point. It was like watching a scene from the Mesozoic era. They are such dinosaurs! They had been ignoring the bittern, until 7:09, when Keisha dragged it to the back of the box and started pulling at it. She then was kicking at other various scraps on the floor. Meanwhile Penelope was joining Archie up on the box lip. They were all looking around and screeching. One of the parents had landed on the east veranda. At one-point, Archie came off the lip and Kiesha came onto it. She didn’t stay for long. But then, at 7:20, Penelope went beyond the lip and onto the base of the crossperch. After a few minutes she took a few uncertain steps and was on the west veranda. She became the first nestling of the season to venture onto one of the verandas. While there, she explored a little and then did some wing exercising. Her siblings all watched her as best they could without venturing over the lip. It looked like Archie wanted to join her but restrained himself. Whenever she flapped her wings, Rue would screech. Astrid landed on the long perch at 7:26. She then danced over to the east veranda. Astrid then jumped back onto the long perch and flew off. I think she just wanted to show the other nestlings the east veranda. At 7:47, Penelope was flapping again. Her siblings were crashed out on the floor of the box. She did some preening afterwards. She seemed to be quite at home. At 8:22, Penelope was considering coming back into the box. She was standing at the corner of the veranda platform, looking over toward the box. By that time the siblings had roused. Rue was storming around, flapping and acting like a nut while Archie was on the box lip and Keisha at the inside corner nearest the veranda. That meant that Keisha and Archie were effectively blocking her path back into the box. At 8:40, she managed to squeeze between them and get back into the box. By 9 PM, all were crashed out on the floor. One looked like it was using a Pigeon wing as a pillow. Astrid had moved from the steeple to a ledge east of the box and Ares was out of view. Goodnight all.
Wednesday, June 12th had a cool start, but the skies were mostly clear and temps rose into the 70’s by noon. Astrid was on a window ledge east of the nestbox for at least part of last night and then I’m not sure where she was. There were no overnight feedings and the chicks all stayed inside the box. Parents were both on the north face of the State Building by 5 AM. About five minutes later, Ares stopped at the box and livened things up. Shortly after that, one of the parents was dealing with prey on the hotel ledge. At 5:15, Penelope scampered over to the east veranda. At 5:20, Astrid dropped off some leftovers at the box. She didn’t even try to do a feeding. Archie was up on the lip of the box and Rue was feeding. At 5:44, both parents were on deep window ledges of the State Building. In the past we’ve interpreted that as a demonstration to the young where the safe places to land are. At 5:50, Keisha was giving cackle alarm calls. She then got up on the lip of the box and looked over towards the east veranda. Just when it looked like she was going to hop over there, she abruptly changed course and jumped back into the box.
At 6:11, the nestlings were all screeching. Penelope was looking like she was getting ready to return to the box. Astrid visited the nest ten minutes later. At 6:23 all three kids in the box including Rue were up on the lip. Two minutes later Keisha joined Penelope on the east veranda. Astrid landed on the west veranda at 6:28. Rue got back up onto the box lip and looked like he was going to try to get to Astrid but changed his mind. Keisha came back into the box at 6:45. At 7:26, Archie joined his mother on the west veranda. At 8:30, both parents were on pillars above and to the west of the nestbox. The power washing of the State Building’s north face had resumed, and Astrid and Ares were no longer encouraging the young to fledge. At around 8:45, Ares left his perch, but then came right back a few minutes later. Penelope came back in the box right after that. At 9:00, two nestlings were on the west veranda and two were in the box. Both parents went to the east veranda. They weren’t encouraging the young to fledge, but they were encouraging them to use the verandas. Astrid did a quick flight around the canyon and returned to the veranda. Ares flew south, probably to get food. At 9:11, Astrid jumped into the nestbox. She was looking for scraps to feed out. One of the young from the east veranda returned to the box and took part in a tugging match over food with Astrid and Rue.
At 9:12, Ares brought food to the box. Astrid took it and tried to do a feeding, but it became another tugging contest. Astrid was tearing off pieces of food, while Penelope was trying hard to pull the whole meal away with her foot. One of the kids was giving alarm calls. At 9:15, two nestlings were sharing the food and Astrid was out. At 9:35, Rue and Penelope were both up on the lip of the box. At 10:12, Ares was giving long calls from the top of a pillar on the ADK bank building. The power washing had temporarily stopped. Ten minutes later he was calling again. Keisha was on the west veranda flapping her wings. At 10:25, Astrid did a check-in at the box. She flew to the steeple and then back up to a pillar. At 10:44, more long calls from Ares. Keisha had returned to the box and so all the nestlings were reunited. At 11:09, Astrid did another quick check in at the box. The power washing had started up again and Ares came to the east veranda. He was up again shortly after. Astrid did another check-in at the nest at 11:20, and then she hopped over to the west veranda perch. One of the nestlings became activated. The others remained reclined in the box. Both parents made a stop at the box at 12:41. The nestlings all went crackers.
At 1:06 PM, Rue was doing some cackling. Parents were nowhere to be seen. Even when the power washing resumed on the State Building, we couldn’t find them with out PTZ cams. At 2:15, one of the nestlings went over to the west veranda. Fifteen minutes later she had come back into the box and was crashed out on the floor with the others. At 3:15, Ares made a brief appearance in the canyon. He looked in on the nest and at the east veranda and then was gone again without a trace. At 3:20, Rue crossed over to the east veranda. Until this point, he was the only nestling left that hadn’t been on a veranda. At 4 PM, Rue was trying to find shade, but couldn’t manage it on the east veranda. He tucked himself up into one corner. Astrid came back from her spa afternoon at 4:03 and took a perch on the steeple. All the nestlings were melting down over seeing Astrid. Rue had moved back into the box right before that. By 5:00, Astrid was in hunting mode. She made several forays out, presumably after Pigeons. At 5:10, the kids were all activated and began dispersing onto the verandas. Rue went back to the east veranda and Penelope went to the west. Meanwhile, Astrid was circling the bank building and then flying over towards the hotel. At 5:20, Ares showed up with food – probably something drawn out of storage. He just dropped it at the box and left. At 5:36, another nestling went over to the west veranda. At six o’clock, there were three youngsters on the west veranda, one on the east, and, for the first time in a long time, nobody in the nestbox. At 6:10, both parents appeared at the box. Ares had food; Astrid took it into the box. She was alone in there and calling as if all the nestlings were around her. All the kids began screaming from their respected verandas. One came in from the west veranda and Astrid started feeding her. The second came in and then the third. At that point a food fight started. Astrid got out and the three nestlings all pulled at the food and at each other, and all screeching like they were insane. Astrid went to the east veranda where Rue still was but she didn’t stay long. At 6:13, one youngster was feeding in the corner and the other two were still screeching away.
At 6:24, Astrid was back on the steeple, Ares was on the north face of the State Building and the kids were all taking turns seeing who could screech the loudest. Well, it seemed that way. At 6:30, one of the nestlings, Penelope, I think, went back to the west veranda. At 6:54, Rue was doing a powerful lot of flapping and squealing. Keisha and Archie watched him from the lip of the box with great interest. At 7:00, a hawk went through the canyon and Ares escorted him out. No one seemed overly upset about it and afterwards Ares came right back to the State Building. Rue looked like he wanted to go east onto the window ledge beyond the edge of the veranda. He put one foot on the cement and turned around. He was back in the box ten minutes later. Once in he started feeding on scraps in the corner. Keisha and Archie spend some time on the rim, screeching into the canyon. They were still hungry. At 7:38, Astrid went after a Pigoen, but came right back without prey. All the youngsters were screeching again. At 7:40, Rue laid down right in front of the box lib and underneath where Archie was perched. The two did some beaking. By that time Keisha had moved over to the east veranda. Archie started doing a lot of flapping. He would stand on the lip, flap like mad, turn around and then dash to the back of the box. he was a crazy man after that – rampaging around the box, footing scraps and menacing Rue. He found some scraps to pick at finally. At 8:00, Astrid landed on of the pillars west of the box. More screeching commenced and Penelope started flapping. At 8:15, Keisha was flapping her wings on the east veranda also. This day was just going on and on! At 8:17, Rue looked like he wanted to go back on the east veranda.Soon he placated himself by picking on some scraps. By 8:30, the veranda falcons had come back into the nest. They were still standing and alert, but probably in for the night. Goodnight falcons and falcon friends