Astrid was on the nest all night. It was wet and chilly and conditions didn’t improve as the day progressed. Ares screeched to the box at 5:35 AM. The pair did a rapid switch and Ares got his first turn on the eggs. At 6:05 he was chirping like he had his mate in view, but we couldn’t find her with our PTZ camera. The next changeover took place at 7:05 and then Astrid was on the eggs. At 8:46 we heard Ares screech and Astrid was calling back to him but we didn’t know where he was perched – perhaps on a pillar above the box (our PTZ 2 camera is still out of commission and so we can’t see those pillars). The next switch took place at around 9:30 AM. Ares brought food to his mate this time. Ten minutes later we saw her feeding at the hotel.
The falcons changed places at 10:39 and then Astrid was on the nest. Just before noon she began chirping loudly. There was an intruder in the canyon and Ares was engaging it. The stranger and Ares sparred while they flew towards the northwest. Astrid got off the nest and darted after the intruder. Ares broke off his police action and flew directly to the nest. The eggs were alone for less than a minute. Astrid landed on the State Building a minute later, but soon after she was up again and flying with purpose towards the west. She was back to the State Building only 5 minutes later. At 12:45 Astrid came to the crossperch, hopped into the box and began lobbying for Ares to leave. After 12 solid minutes of negotiations (which including beaking and some menacing postures), Ares still wouldn’t relinquish the nest. Finally, she left. We didn’t see her again until 3:30 PM when she returned to the box to take a shift. As it turned out, that was the last changing of the guard for the day. The weather had deteriorated by that point. A mix of rain and snow was falling, temps dropped, and the wind had picked up. I suppose it could have been considered a mild day by January standards, but pretty abysmal for late April. At 6:18 Ares had come into the box and was requesting a late sitting. He tried leaning on her a bit but it didn’t work. He dug in the corner of the box for a minute before flying out and presumably going to a night perch. As for Astrid, she was hunkered down on her eggs. That’s where she would stay for the night. Goodnight all.
