Astrid was visible on the State Building in the very early morning hours. She was out of view for quite a while after that. She finally came into the box at 5:30 AM. She scrounged around on the floor for scraps and fed some out to the nestlings. Ares finally brought prey to the nest at 8:02. Astrid darted over, yanked the food away from him, and then Zeus snatched it away from her. Astrid grabbed it back and started a feeding. A half-hour later Astrid was back in the box conducting a feeding. We think she was feeding out some food scraps already in the box. After being out of camera view for a while, at 9:23 Ares screeched up to the nestbox and hopped inside. Xena charged at him, forcing him to jump back onto the crossperch. He tried to come in again, but Xena crowded him once more and he opted to go onto the west veranda. Ares persevered and a couple of minutes later he was back in the box conversing with the nestlings. He was giving low grunt-like calls. These are similar to the calls Astrid gives when she is impatiently trying to get Ares to switch when incubating eggs.
At 11:00 AM Ares was at the nest again and the chicks were squealing at him. He left about 15 minutes later. At 12:15 he was sailing around the State Building. Was he searching his pantry ledges for a suitable meal for the kids? At 12:22 he was plucking prey on the hotel ledge. Astrid was about ten feet away from him on the same ledge. She was waiting for him to hand the food over, but it wasn’t happening. She flew to the nest – expecting him to follow her, but he didn’t. The nestlings were screaming to be fed. She went back to the hotel. Finally, he was done eating his share. He flew, but took his time getting to the nest. He had the food on the crossperch and Astrid grabbed it from him. She jumped into the box and immediately had a tug-o-war with Zeus. She managed to pull it back and was able to start a feeding. By 12:42 rain was falling, and the wind had picked up considerably. Ares arrived on the crossperch, hopped into the box, picked up a feather from the floor, handed it to Xena and left. Should that constitute a feeding?
Astrid did a chick-check at 2 PM. Both parents were spending a lot of time on the State Building – perching and making hunting runs. The strong winds allowed them to fly for free (without flapping) to anywhere in the canyon and they took full advantage of it. At 4:11 Astrid had a Pigeon on the hotel and was plucking it. Ares was perched nearby on the same ledge. She brought the prey over to the nest five minutes later and began a long feeding session. At 4:35 she flew out with the leftovers. Astrid was in the box doing another feeding at 5:15. We think she was only feeding out what was left from the last meal. At 5:19 we heard one of the parents give a cackle-type alarm call. Both were sailing around the canyon, and even kiting by our PTZ roof camera. It almost seemed like they were hazing the upper floor windows of the bank building, but they were giving no additional alarm calls, so that probably wasn’t the case. They were just enjoying floating on the high winds. Perhaps it was an example of early demonstration flights the parents do for the benefit of their soon-to-be-fledging young. At 7:07 Ares landed on the roof of the nestbox. Even though Astrid has done this many times, it is not something we’ve seen Ares do yet this season. There was a cackle-type call that preceded his action, but we think that was a practice call given by a nestling. At 11:48 Astrid had moved from the long perch to the west veranda and we could see that Ares was flying around the State Building. The parents seemed very active for some reason. Their midnight activities will be covered in Monday’s breeding log. Goodnight all.
