Astrid spent the entire night on the nest as expected. It was chilly but not as cold as recent nights. Ares screeched up to the crossperch at 5:32 AM, hopped into the nest and asked for his turn on the eggs. She gave him no argument and made a speedy exit. An hour later Ares was chirping a lot and we weren’t sure why. We assumed that he was watching Astrid hunt. Just then, a pair of male Common Mergansers flew by the PTZ camera, headed north. They were not being pursued by Astrid. It was odd to have ducks so active in the heart of downtown. In fact, the Mergansers flew through the canyon at least three more times over the next 15 minutes. We thought they were probably disoriented, but why? The weather was clear. It was odd and, we think, unprecedented. At 6:56 Astrid was seen flying around the east face of the State Building. Ares gave light chirping calls as he watched her. She landed on a high ledge on the north face. They switched at the nest at 7:27. Ares was out of view for a while but then showed up on the State Building just before 8:00. Astrid announced his arrival.
At 9:53 Ares was on the steeple. He was giving long screech calls. From the box Astrid was answering him with chirping calls. Her part of the conversation went on for a while. At 11:20 we located Ares on the ledge of the hotel. He was preening and sunning himself – spreading out his tail feathers like a hand of playing cards. At 12:17 he was at the nest asking Astrid to give him a turn on the eggs. She wouldn’t leave and he flew over to the steeple instead. Ares came back to the box just before 1 PM. This time Astrid was only too happy to switch. She had been incubating for more than 5 hours. Regardless, she was back to the box at 4:15 and ready for another shift. Ares was out of camera view until 7:51 PM. At that time, we saw him engaged with an intruder. He repeatedly swooping down at the unknown (probably female) peregrine as it perched on the roof of the State Building. Astrid began giving her most excited chirping alarm calls and got off the eggs. She flew out of the box to help chase off the foreign Peregrine. As soon as she became involved, Ares broke off his chase and flew to the box. He got right onto the eggs which had been alone for less than a minute. At 7:54 Ares was chirping like he had Astrid in view. Sure enough, we saw her disappear behind the State Building. We couldn’t tell if she was still chasing the intruded or not. At 8:12 Astrid returned to the fold. She landed on the crossperch and acted like she was requesting a mating. Ares immediately hopped off the eggs and flew out of the box but he didn’t boomerang back and attempt to mate. She wouldn’t have been in place anyhow since she had already jumped into the box and gotten onto the eggs. The excitement for the day/night appeared to be over by that point. Goodnight falcons and all.
