Temperatures were cool overnight, hovering around the freezing mark. After daybreak temps rose fairly quickly, reaching about 60 by midday and well past that later in the afternoon. The wind was a little stronger in the afternoon as well, but overall it was a very pleasant day. As far as we could tell, Astrid spent the night on the eggs without interruption. Ares screeched to the long perch with food at 6:02 AM. Astrid hopped out onto the crossperch, grabbed it with a foot and flew off with it. We anticipated that she would go directly to the hotel with it, but she wasn’t there when we pointed the PTZ in that direction. However, a minute or so later she was there. What took her so long to get there? Deb said she took the scenic route. When she was done with her meal, she flew over to a steeple perch. The falcons switched at 6:58, and then Astrid was back on the eggs. The next changeover happened at 8:43, and then Ares was on nest duty. Astrid was on the steeple again at 9:00. She came to the crossperch twenty minutes later. About fifteen minutes after that, she jumped into the box and started trying to convince him to leave the nest. As it happened, he didn’t require much convincing and he was out.
Astrid started calling from the nest at 10:38 AM. Perhaps she only saw her mate fly through the canyon. About ten minutes later she was doing some housework – picking at stones and the like. At 11:42, the falcons switched and then Ares was on the eggs. Astrid flew to a high perch on the State Building. At 12:35, Ares abruptly dove out of the nest. We weren’t sure why. We didn’t hear any alarm calls. It may have been simply that he didn’t know where Astrid was. He returned two minutes later and got back onto the clutch. She soon arrived onto a State Building perch. He jumped off the eggs and dove out of the box again at 1:00 PM. Astrid came to the nest less than a minute later and started calling almost immediately upon settling down. Ares arrived with a small food offering at 1:04. He brought it inside the box for her to take. She flew to the hotel with it as he got down on the eggs. She finished her meal at 1:11, and went back to her State Building perch. At 1:53, Astrid landed on the crossperch and gave a few of her famous donkey calls. Ares emitted complaining squeak notes even as she hopped into the box. As she got behind him and he gave up his place. He flew into the canyon and eventually took a perch on the State Building.
At 2:14 PM, Astrid was calling in the box. We were not sure what was getting her hackles up. She called some more about an hour later. We thought that maybe she wanted Ares to relieve her as the sun was beginning to flood the box. In past years Astrid would typically avoid spending afternoons in the box when the sun was at full strength. She would always want Ares to handle that shift. Ares was on the steeple perch at 3:21. He gave some long calls twenty minutes later and came to the box. He tried getting behind his mate and ousting her, but she was an unmovable object. A couple minutes after he came, he was out again. At 5:10, we heard Ares giving chirping calls from his perch on the State Building. We thought perhaps there was an intruder in the canyon, but he wasn’t leaving his perch. Astrid stood up in the nest for a few moments, but she wasn’t leaving either. Ares finally did leave his perch at 5:26. He came to the box a little while after that. He stayed out on the crossperch that time and gauged Astrid’s attitude from there. She still didn’t want to go, so he left instead. At 5:51, Ares was on the hotel ledge. There were a couple of Pigeon on the same ledge about 50 feet down from him, but he wasn’t even looking at them. At 6:00 PM, Astrid bolted off the nest. Ares was up too. We weren’t sure what precipitated that action. Was there an intruder? Ares came directly over to the box and got onto the eggs. Astrid showed up on the State Building less than ten minutes later. She stayed there until 7:35, and then flew to the nest. Ares put up a slight amount of resistance to leaving, but then got up and dove out of the nest. Goodnight falcons and all.
