Astrid was guarding the box for much of the overnight period. Ares brought prey to the box at 3:03 AM. Astrid did the feeding. It was very hard to see both nestlings in the box at that time – it was too dark in the corners and edges. We could see that the larger chick was getting fed, but weren’t sure if the smaller one got anything. We didn’t see Ares for a while after that. At 7:14 Astrid saw/heard Ares come into the canyon with prey. She flew out to meet him and they likely exchanged food in a mid-air transfer, but we had no visual confirmation. Astrid came back with prey and did a feeding. She went to the west veranda when the meal was done. Twenty minutes later she was jumping up onto the roof of the nestbox. Like the two days before, Astrid was getting perturbed about people in offices near the nest. At 8:13 Ares was on the crossperch when Astrid flew in with food – it probably was drawn from the State Building pantry. She then fed the chicks for close to 15 minutes straight. By 9:53 she had become irritated again and was back up on the roof of the box. At 11:37 both Astrid and Ares were on the crossperch. She moved to the west veranda and then back to the roof of the nestbox.
At 1:13 PM Ares was on the east veranda soaking up some sun. He had his wings and tail feathers spread out. Fifteen minutes later, he was up and Astrid was sunning herself in the very same place, At 1:39 we heard the practice cackle call of one of the nestlings. Their calls are becoming more and more similar to the calls of the adults. At 2:22 Astrid was back on the east veranda, sunning herself. Ares came through the canyon with prey at 2 :45 PM. He carried it to the box. Astrid did a short feeding and then was out of the nest. Ares screeched over and did a chick-check at 3:35. Astrid did her own check at 3:35 PM. The afternoon was hot and sunny with temperatures reaching 80 degrees. Ares was in the box doing shading duty at 3:45. The only trouble was, he was shading only the eggs. The chicks were huddled together in a shady corner, so it wasn’t of any consequence that their father spent two hours protecting two unviable eggs from the harmful effects of the midday sun and heat. By 4:38 the sun in the box had moved and the eggs were in the sun again. I guess Ares thought he was still shading them. As for the chicks, dad was providing extra shade if they wanted it. They still preferred the back corners of the box. An hour later (5:32) they actually did take advantage of Ares’ shadow. Meanwhile, at 4:44 Astrid went to the roof of the nest box, which probably meant she was becoming perturbed again by what people were doing near office windows. At about 5:50 Ares’ shading duty was done, and he went out onto the long perch. Between 6 and 7 PM Astrid appeared to be in hunting mode – launching out and then returning to perches on the State Building. At 7:10 she was on the hotel ledge plucking prey. Five minutes later she flew to the box and plunked most of a Pigeon down onto the floor and began feeding the nestlings. The meal was done at 7:25 and she was out. Following their meal, the chicks were quite lively in the nest, walking around, stretching their wings, and doing a lot of flapping exercises. Astrid was visible around the nest area until close to midnight and then she was out of camera view. She called out as if she saw Ares hunting at 11:07 PM. Goodnight falcons and all.
