It was cool overnight with a light rain. Temperatures were mired in the 30’s all night and through the day. Rainfall was steadiest during the midday hours. As best we could determine, the falcons did not come to the box during the night. Ares arrived at the nest at 5:52 AM. He was vocalizing as if his mate was nearby. It was dark but we finally picked her out on a window ledge west of the nestbox. At 6:30, Ares flew up to his lookout spot on the northwest corner of the State Building roof. Was he going up there to hunt? At 7:08, he came to her ledge with a Woodcock (what else?). Astrid surprised us all by accepting it and flying over to the hotel. Ares flew with her and perched nearby on the same ledge. It was a historic occasion – Astrid with a Woodcock! By 7:28, both falcons were up. Ares ended up at the nest, but we weren’t sure where Astrid was. At 7:43, she showed up on a steeple perch. Ares flew from the box, buzzed by her, and then returned to the nest like a boomerang. At 8:07, he did the same thing again, although this time they mated on the steeple. Another steeple mating occurred at 8:25, and once again, Ares returned right back to the box. It was as if there was an elastic tether between him and the nest – the way he kept bouncing back to it. The pair’s next mating took place at 9:15 on the steeple.
At 9:25, Ares was back to the nest with most of a Woodcock – likely the same one from earlier. Apparently, Astrid didn’t finish it when she was on the hotel. Probably no one is surprised about that, with the notable exception of Ares. He was chirping at her to come and get it, but she was wholly uninterested. After plucking it for a while he brought it over to Astrid’s ledge and tried to make her understand the value of a pre-plucked sandpiper, but he couldn’t make the sale. He took it back to the box and chewed on it for a while. At 9:44, he made another attempt at giving her the ever-diminishing meal, but it was futile, she was hard set against it. He flew over to her again, dangled the food in front of her, but still nothing. He tried to give her that meal a total of 11 times in one hour! At that point he had given up. The meal was getting smaller anyhow since he was nibbling on it between each boomerang trip. He polished it off on the edge of the box. By that time rain showers put a damper of the Peregrine’s activities. He stayed at the nest loafing and preening; she did the same on her pillar perch west of the box. At 12:26 PM, the pair took a break from loafing to mate on the pillar. At 1:12, A&A conducted a ledge display at the nest. It was a relatively lively dance that featured some beaking. Ares jumped out after nine minutes. He went to his favorite pillar perch while she did some work around the nestbox. At 1:52, the mating chatter was heard.
At 2:30, Ares was at the box and Astrid was on the east veranda. They mated there at 2:45. Following that he went to perch on the steeple. At 3:19 PM, there was a food exchange on the east veranda. Astrid took her meal over to the hotel. Twenty minutes later she was on the steeple. The mated there at 3:50 PM. After a pretty calm late afternoon, at 5:56, both falcons were up and flying. He came to the nest and started giving some excited calls. She zoomed through the canyon, upped a dozen Pigeons, and then landed on the crossperch. A few minutes later, Ares dove out of the nest and the pair mated on the long perch. At the end of their coupling, she flew off at the same time he did. That was unusual. Did she lose her balance? They both went to the hotel for a short time and then, at 6:20, they were back at the nest. They danced for less than a minute and Ares was out. He darted up to his lookout post as she stayed on the crossperch. At 7:07 PM, Astrid called out and Ares immediately responded and came to the nest. They were both in the box together for less than a minute before Ares was out again. Ten minutes later, she had also flown – most likely to her night perch. Goodnight falcons.
