It was a cold night with temps down to the freezing point. As expected, Astrid spent the night on the eggs and the two chicks. At 4:55 AM Ares brought food to the nest. Astrid took it and fed the chicks. It was a short feeding. Our main nestbox camera recordings had shut down at around 4 AM so we have few details of what took place at the nest until after 5:30. At 5:35 Ares was spotted on the ledge at the hotel with prey. He brought what was left of it to the box at 5:43 and offered it to Astrid. She snatched it and did a feeding. At 5:52 she flew from the box with the leftovers. Ares immediately darted over from his perch on a high ledge on the State Building, landed in the box and climbed onto the brood. She was back within a minute and quickly displaced him. At 8:43 Ares brought more food to the box. Astrid took most of it from him (leaving him with a chunk) and carried out a feeding. Ares took his piece and flew back into the canyon. When the chicks were done with the meal, she left (presumably with leftovers) only to return a moment later at 8:55.
At 10:20 Ares came to the box and asked to switch, but Astrid quickly sent him away. Less than ten minutes later he was back and inside the box. She sent him out, but this time she got up and began feeding out leftovers that were already in the box. Ares went out onto the crossperch for a few moments before sailing off into the canyon. A quick switch occurred at 12:11 PM. At 12:18 we located Astrid on the hotel preening. Ares began calling from the box. It was the alarm chirp he gives when a Peregrine intruder is in the territory. He stopped brooding, jumped out of the box, gained altitude quickly and headed out to the northwest. Astrid arrived at the box at 12:23 and took over on the nestlings/eggs. At 12:32 Ares returned to a high perch on the State Building. He flew up to the nest with a small food item at 12:37. Astrid took it and began feeding the nestlings. At around 2:24, Ares was just leaving the box just as Astrid was beginning a feeding session. At the time we weren’t sure if he had brought the food or not.
At 5:11 Astrid was looking very alert as if she was hearing something that made her anxious. At 5:20 she bolted out of the box. She took a perch on the State Building as Ares came in for nest duty. Sunlight had been flooding the box, but the air temperature stayed cool and the wind in the canyon was not insignificant. Poor Ares seemed unsure of how to deal with the two chicks that were squealing in his face. He didn’t brood them or the eggs. He looked at them awkwardly for a few minutes before escaping out onto the crossperch. He left the box at 5:28 and right before Astrid arrived with a small prey item. She proceeded to conduct a feeding. At 6:20 she quickly exited the nest – we weren’t sure why. She returned about 5 minutes later and resumed brooding. She left again at 6:44 and this time Ares came into the box to stay with the squealing babies. A minute later, she was seen plucking a Pigeon on a window ledge on the State Building. She must have just caught it.
At 6:55 PM Astrid was heard giving loud cackle-type alarm calls. We figured that there must have been an intruder in the canyon. We were wrong about that. She was upset because there was a person on the roof of the bank building. She swooped low over the roof several times – landing on the State Building between swooping/hazing runs. Meanwhile Ares remained on guard duty at the box. It turned out the person on the roof was our own tech wizard, Steve, and he was repairing the cable connection to one of our roof-mounted PTZ cameras – the one that’s been out of commission for a few weeks. Fortunately, Astrid wasn’t upset for too long and was back to the box to relieve Ares at 7:25. She did a very quick in and out of the box at 8:34, but following that she was in the box for the night. It was going to be another cold one. We noticed that Ares was again perched on the north face of the State Building until very late – at least until after midnight. Goodnight to all.
