Overnight temperatures were relatively mild once again – remaining in the 50’s. The day was overcast and threatening rain, but the rain never seemed to come (it finally did after 2:30). Once again, high temperatures were close to 80 degrees, which is odd for mid-April. Astrid had spent the night on the eggs without interruption. Ares showed up at the nest at 6:09 AM, and they switched. Astrid flew around the State Building a few times looking for Ares’ stored prey. Apparently, she couldn’t find any, since she perched on a State Building ledge and didn’t have any food with her. At 6:14, Ares abruptly got up and left the nest. He didn’t give any warning calls, just flew out. Astrid came into the nest to resume incubation less than a minutes after he took off. Fifteen minutes later he screeched back to his pillar. We noticed that he had some fresh blood on his talons, which was an indication that he recently secured prey. We assumed he had restocked his pantry. At 6:43, he came to the box. Astrid did some talking to him before she got up and ceded the nest. She checked the pantry on the State Building after leaving the nest and still found nothing she wanted. She took a perch on the north face of the same building.
At 9:03 AM, Astrid landed on the crossperch. She wanted to mate. Ares got off the nest, flew out into the canyon, and then boomeranged back. They mated but it was noticeably short. If this were pre-egg laying time or the egg-laying period, I think we’d consider this mating to be a failed attempt. Astrid then moved onto the eggs and resumed incubation. At 10:35, we heard Ares call from somewhere in the canyon. She chirped back a response. He came to the nest and they managed a quick changing of the guard. At 11:00, Ares was giving alarm chirps from the nest. He calmed down a few minutes later. Shortly after, we spotted Astrid feeding on the hotel. The meal looked sizable. Astrid flew to the steeple at 11:25 and then to the crossperch ten minutes later. Interestingly, she was asking to mate again. He got of the eggs, flew out and then back, and the pair mated. This time it was of normal duration. It’s now been a full week since the last egg was laid. It’s unusual and perhaps even unprecedented for this pair to continue mating this long outside of the egg laying window. Astrid climbed onto the eggs after that. At 12:14, Ares screeched over to his favorite pillar. At 1:00 PM, he was at the nestbox. He wanted his first afternoon turn on the eggs. She was not happy about changing at that time and let him know it. He persisted, eventually coming in behind her and tromping on her flight feathers. She got up after that and sailed into the canyon.
At 1:52 PM, Astrid was back to the crossperch asking to get back on the eggs. She hopped into the box and stood along side Ares. He obviously didn’t want to leave. She beaked with him and used gentle persuasion tactics for about ten minutes. At that point he gave in and left the nest while she settled on the eggs. At 3:21, Ares screeched as he flew through the canyon and landed on his pillar perch. A half hour later he was at the box requesting a shift on the eggs. Almost immediately he resorted to stepping on her flight feathers. Being rude and pushy did the trick; she left and he took over on the eggs. At 5:51, they switched one more time. It was quick. Astrid got onto the eggs and settled in for an early night. Goodnight falcons
