Astrid spent the Friday night/Saturday early morning brooding her single chick and three eggs. Ares screeched to the longperch with food at 4:20 AM. Astrid scrambled over the crossperch and then reached out to grab it from him. It was awkward as usual, but the transfer worked. She then carried out the first feeding of the day. Ares brought more food at 6:25. Astrid took it and did another feeding. Six minutes later she flew out with the leftovers and Ares came in to brood. At 6:39 Astrid was back at the box negotiating with her mate. He wanted to stay on nest duty. Apparently five minutes was not enough time for his taste. She pried him off the eggs and chick and sent him on his way.
At 8:40 Astrid abruptly vacated the nest, which probably meant there was an intruder active in the canyon. Ares arrived two minutes later to resume incubation/brooding. She returned at 8:46 and they switched again. That changeover was not at all contentious. At 10:30 we heard Ares’ distant screech calls. We speculated that he was hunting and/or restocking his pantry. At 11:42 Ares brought in prey. Astrid took it from him and fed the sole chick. We inspected the eggs from various camera views and found no pips. The next switch happened at 12:17 PM. That time Ares was taking over from Astrid. As it happened, Astrid was dealing with an intruder. According to Rick at Grace Church, she spiraled high into the sky and then dove down on her nemesis in an attempt to drive it away. She was back on the State Building only a few minutes later. She came back to the box at 12:22 and switched with Ares, but then she began giving more chirping alarm calls. Shortly after that she gave a loud, long cackle call. The later warning call is most often used when a non-falcon raptor is in the canyon. Ares remained on a high perch on the State Building during this incident and so it probably wasn’t too serious. At 1:16 she was back to giving chirping alarm calls, which meant another Peregrine was in the canyon. Astrid jumped off the eggs and darted off to the west. A minute later both Astrid and Ares were back on the State Building, but they were still giving alarm calls. Looking like he meant business, Ares soared off to the northwest. Astrid returned to the nest and to the clutch but remained alert for some time afterwards. At 1:51 She was back to giving a major cackle type alarm call. Again, she jumped out of the nest and scrambled into the air. Ares came to the box and to the brood only three minutes later. At almost the same time Astrid returned and took a perch on the State Building.
At 1:55 Astrid was at the box trying to oust her mate. He left without too much trouble and zoomed over to the State Building. He wasn’t there long before he took off, gained altitude and sailed off to the northwest. Ares returned to the nest with food at 2:40. Astrid scrambled over the perches to get it from him and managed it. She took it over to the hotel ledge while he got comfortable on the eggs/chick. Astrid was back to the box at 3 PM. This time Ares took some persuading to get him moving off the nest. We noticed that the calls of the chick are getting louder and louder. It was much more of a squeal today. The chick appears to have grown a lot in just a couple of days. Ares brought more food to box at around 5:06. She took the prey and conducted the feeding. The feeding ended before 5:09 and she took the leftovers away. Ares was at the nest only a couple of minutes later and taking over incubation duties. She showed up at 5:19 and kicked her reluctant mate out again. At 6:09 Ares was back to the nest with more food. She took it from him and did a short feeding. Afterwards she settled down to brood. He was back at 6:39 asking hopefully for another shift brooding, but she said no. However, less than a minute late she was off the nest again and possibly dealing with an intruder. At day’s end, Astrid was snug on her nest and Ares was perched on the State Building in view of our cameras until close to midnight. Goodnight all.
