It was chilly overnight with temps down into the 30’s again. Morning was partly overcast and chilly; afternoon was only slightly warmer. Some light rain fell in the early evening. Astrid was on her eggs all night as expected. At 5:53 AM, Astrid began to call. She likely wanted to be relieved. Ares was on his lookout post on the northeast corner of the State Building. This time we don’t think it had anything to do with an intruder, but more likely he was simply using it as a hunting perch; a place to watch for prey. Soon she was giving her famous donkey calls. She was likely hungry as well as eager to stretch her wings. At 6:17, Ares came to the nest with food. She snatched it from him and took it over to the hotel. She did some plucking before consuming it. By 6:40, she was on the State Building. An hour later they did a quick changeover and then Astrid was back on the nest. At 10:14, we heard Astrid calling from the nest, but we didn’t know what the issue was. Ares came to the box a minute later and offered to take over on the eggs, but she only barked in his face and sent him away. He took a perch on the steeple for a while.
At 11:38, Ares was back to the nest and the pair executed another quick switch. She went to the State Building. They stayed in place – him on the nest and her on the State Building, until the next changing of the guard which took place at 2:12 PM. At 2:41, she became anxious and began vocalizing from the box. We thought that maybe she was reacting to something he was doing, but we couldn’t find him. We located him at 2:48. He was on the southwest corner of the upper ledge at the hotel. Visible behind him the Utica Marsh. At 4:25, we heard Ares screech a few times. Maybe he buzzed by the nest or made a quick stop, we were not sure. At 5:00 PM, we heard him screeching again. This time we found him. He was on one of the high steeple perches. The pair switched again at around 5:50. She was feeding on the hotel not long after that, so it’s possible that he gave her something. She was up again by 6:37 and we weren’t sure where she went after that. She appeared at the nestbox at 7:37 PM and the pair conducted a quick switch. Ares went immediately out of view and the Astrid settled down for the night. Goodnight falcons.
