It was cold and windy overnight with occasional rain showers. The rain turned to snow at dawn and the wind drove the flurries sideways. It was a rude beginning to the month of May. Temperatures were in the low thirties in the early morning and topped out in the fifties by midafternoon. Astrid was on the eggs the whole night as expected. Ares made his first appearance at the box at 5:39 AM and that is when they switched. She flew to the State Building directly after leaving the nest. At 5:53 she was up again and flying around the State Building – gliding and kiting on the wind. At 7:56 Ares briefly cackled while on the nest. We don’t know what or who he was reacting to. They switched right after that, so perhaps Astrid was delegating a non-falcon intruder issue to him. Our monitoring of the falcons was spotty through the morning, but we believe they were generally inactive during much of it. At 11:06 AM Astrid called when Ares landed on the State Building. Apparently, he had been out of view for a while. She vocalized again when he returned from another hunting foray at noon.
At 12:41 PM Ares came to the box to switch. She wanted to stay, but he quickly dislodged her. At 1:17 he called when she came back into view and landed on the State Building. The next switch was quick and occurred at 2:46. That time he took over on the eggs. Ten minutes later we heard him screeching from somewhere in the canyon. Perhaps he had gotten prey and was storing it on one of his pantry ledges. She vocalized from the nest at 3:46. That was likely a reaction to him returning to the State Building. At 6:20 PM Ares came to the nest for a late switch. We were surprised and thought it likely that Astrid was on the eggs for the night. However, she took advantage of his offer and flew into the canyon. He gave squeaking calls as she glided around downtown. At 6:32 she landed on the south facing steeple perch. She remained there for an hour. The last switch of the evening took place at 7:39 when Astrid came in and took over incubation. Ares soared around the canyon for a while, briefly landing on the west face of the State Building. He was up a minute later. At 7:41 Astrid came off the eggs for a few minutes to dig in the stones. We saw no pips in the eggs at that time. Sunday, May 2nd, begins our hatch window and we will be examining the eggs for pips whenever we get a chance. Goodnight all.
