Astrid was visible at the nest area on and off through the night. At 3:29 AM Ares brought food to the box. At the times, Astrid was nowhere in sight. Instead of trying to feed the nestlings himself, he opted to wait for Astrid to show up. Lately every time Ares comes into the box with prey, a chick grabs it away from him and absconds with it into the corner. So far this season he has not tried to retrieve stolen prey. This time, instead of risking losing the meal, he waited. When she showed up at 4:11 (forty minutes later), she snatched the prey and did a feeding. After the meal Astrid was on the crossperch for a while. From there she moved onto the west veranda. Ares brought more food to the east veranda at 5:43. Astrid took it and flew off into the canyon. She was back a minute later feeding the nestlings. At 6:17 Astrid was back inside the box. She was scrounging around on the floor for a scraps to feed to the chicks. The nestlings didn’t get in her way, but only watched her and squealed.
At 8:20 Astrid was on the west veranda and Ares was on the west face of the State Building. Ares came to the east veranda after that and then the two parents were guarding the box from either side. After a few minutes, Astrid jumped onto the roof of the nest box. At 8:27 Astrid was in the box doing a feeding. We weren’t sure if she brought the prey in or if it came from Ares. She had to play tug-o-war with Zeus before she was able to start feeding. We hadn’t seen Ares for much of the morning and then he showed up at the nestbox at 10:48 AM. He had prey in his talons. Astrid grabbed it away from him and did the feeding. At 11:07 Ares was doing a chick-check in the box. Astrid moved back to the roof of the box at 12:33. The Peregrine parents were sticking pretty close to the nest. At 1:16 Ares was in the box to check on the nestlings. First, he looked at the eggs and then he shared glances with the chicks. They were squealing at him like hungry piglets. At 2:22 Astrid was doing another feeding. Again, we weren’t sure who brought it in. Following the meal, both Peregrines were on opposite verandas.
Ares did a check-in at the nestbox at 4:40. Following that, Astrid was flying around the State Building and landing on different ledges. She appeared to be checking Ares’ pantry. She landed on one west face ledge before flying out on a westward heading. The chicks saw her leave and they upped the decibels of their screeching calls. At 7:30 PM both parents converged at the nestbox but neither had prey. The chicks were going wild waiting for one of them to come back with something. Ares flew around the State Building checking his pantry ledges. He then dashed off toward the northeast on what looked like a hunting run. Astrid left the box a minute later. She flew directly up to a high ledge on the north face of the State Building. She picked up a stored cuckoo and brought it back to the nest. She then fed the squealing nestlings their supper. As most of us recall from previous seasons, Astrid doesn’t like cuckoos and rarely appreciates it when Ares brings one in. She must have been pretty desperate to resort to bringing one over herself. Astrid was visible at the nest area for most of the remainder of the evening. Ares was out of view. Goodnight all.
