Astrid stayed on the nest through an unseasonably cold and snowy evening/early morning. There were no super-early morning visits or food deliveries by Ares – as far as we know. Our camera feeds shut down at one point so we couldn’t check the recordings for confirmation of that. Ares brought food to the box at 5:46 AM. Astrid took it from him on the crossperch, hopped into the box and started feeding the hungry chicks. After leaving the box, Ares sailed right by our PTZ one camera. He landed on a high north ledge on the State Building. After feeding the nestlings, Astrid went back to brooding. Yesterday we noticed that the adult falcons are not being as conscientious about covering the two remaining eggs. Both Astrid and Ares have allowed one or both to be too far in front or too far behind them while brooding the chicks. In other words, they know the eggs are not viable and they have given up on full incubation. At 5:57, Astrid was out of the box and Ares arrived to babysit. Astrid was back in less than a minute and she impatiently clucked in his ear until he vacated the nest. Like Ares before her, when settling down to brood, she neglected to tuck one of the eggs beneath her.
Shortly before 8 AM the falcons switched at the nest. We missed seeing Astrid leave, but when she came back minutes later, she made her most impatient sounding clucking sounds right in his face and sent him out the door. At 8:54 Ares flew up to the nest with food. Astrid took it and did a feeding. The next feeding took place around 10:09 but we didn’t have many details about that one. An hour later Ares was located on the hotel ledge with prey. He ate part of it and then flew away, probably to store the balance. Astrid vocalized when she saw him flying back into the canyon. Snow squalls were becoming intense in late morning and continued intermittently through the afternoon. Ares had been coming and going from the State Building. He was probably hunting. At 1 PM Astrid called out loudly during one of Ares’ forays. At 1:03 he came to the box and requested a turn with the nestlings. They had a lively conversation after which, she sent him out – probably to fetch a meal. At 2:35 Ares was giving long calls from somewhere in the canyon. A minute later he was at the box with prey. Astrid grabbed it and began feeding the chicks. We think she took the leftovers out and then she was back brooding moments later. Wind and snowsqualls became very intense after that. Ares was perched on the north face of the State Building, but the PTZ cam became obscured by ice and we then couldn’t see him anymore.
At 4:54, during a break in the snow, Ares brought food to the nest and Astrid fed the chicks. By 5:00 she was back to brooding. At 7:23 Ares came to the box with dinner. Once again, Astrid took the food and handled the feeding. Ares was on the Sate Building after that and remained visible until around 8:00. Astrid remained brooding through the night. Goodnight falcons.
Astrid ousts Ares before feeding the chicks