It was another cool and dry night with temperatures bottoming out at the freezing point. Astrid stayed tight on the eggs all night. Ares came to the west veranda with prey at 5:10 AM but Astrid barked at him to leave. At 6:20 they switched, and Ares took a turn on the eggs. Astrid flew around the State Building a few times – we think she was checking to see what Ares had on the pantry ledges. She returned to the nest at 8:15 and asked to have her turn but Ares didn’t want to leave. Like yesterday, she resisted strong arm tactics – like stomping on his tail, and tried a more gentle approach to shifting him. She beaked with him and, just like yesterday, it did the trick. He was out and she was back on the eggs. At 8:20 she started calling a lot and we thought there may be an intruder. Ares was up from his perch on the State Building. He was on the hotel ledge a few minutes later with food. She was still calling a lot, but he wasn’t reacting.
At 10:52 Ares brought food to the box. She accepted it and flew over to the hotel to eat it. After finishing she did some soaring around the State Building. Ares was squeaking in the box while he watched her antics. She did a wide circle that sent her past the PTZ and back to the State Building. At noon she at the box and sporting a full crop. She was impatient to take over incubation and it showed. She waited five minutes for him to leave, but when he didn’t, instead of using gentle persuasion, she stomped on his tail to get him up. It worked, he was out, and she took over on the eggs. By 12:30, there was an intruder in the canyon. Astrid was calling loudly in the nest, but then flew out to engage the stranger. Ares was back in the box and on the eggs less than two minutes later. She returned to the State Building at 12:46.
The next switch took place at sometime between 3:00 and 3:30 – we missed it. At 4:50 we saw Ares on the State Building, but he wasn’t there for long. He did some fancy swooping flights on the wind and then was back on the State Building a few minutes later. At 5:07 Astrid came off the eggs. She may have flown to wherever he was to get food. She showed up on the hotel with some small scrap of food and he came to the box at the same time. She was up again at 5:09. Winds increased through the afternoon and the falcons took full advantage of the free-flying opportunity. She came to the crossperch at 6:04 PM. She was asking to take over on the eggs, but he wasn’t ready to go yet. She beaked with him a few times and that worked. He was up and out. He did a dramatic flyby in front of the PTZ cam and headed to the State Building. Twenty minutes later, he was up and she was vocalizing very loudly. There was an intruder in the canyon and both Astrid and Ares were engaging it. They chased it off to the northwest. Ares was back to the box and on the eggs by 6:30. She returned to the State Building briefly but then was up again. At 7:13 Astrid made a brief visit to the box, but then returned to a perch on the State Building. She was back to the crossperch at 7:41, but Ares signaled he didn’t want to leave, so she let him stay and flew off. She buzzed by the box a few minutes later. She appeared to be having a great time on the wind. At 7:45 she was back to the box again but this time she adopted a posture that indicated she wanted to mate. We wondered if this was a ploy to get him off the eggs. Whether or not it was, he vacated, and she hopped in. She was not at ease though. Noise inside an adjacent office was distracting her and keeping her off the eggs. Fortunately, the office light soon went off and Astrid could relax again. By this time Ares had gone off, presumably to his night perch and Astrid was settled down for the night. Goodnight falcons and all.
