The overnight period was chilly with temperatures dipping to the freezing point. Temps rose pretty quickly after daybreak reaching the 50’s before noon. Astrid was on the nest all night. Ares arrived at the box with prey at 2:48 AM. Astrid fed the chicks for about 7 minutes. She then ate the last few bites and resumed brooding. Ares was back at the box at 5:32. He had a small prey item in his talons. Astrid sent him away without taking the food. He came back with the same prey only a minute later and she sent him away once again. After storing it, he went over to the hotel ledge. At 5:49 Ares pulled the same rejected food back out of the pantry and brought it back to the nest. As it happened, the third time was the charm. She took it that time and made it the chicks’ breakfast. It turned out the babies weren’t that interested in eating and so Astrid flew out with it and stored it. While she was gone, Ares came in to take over brooding. He didn’t even get to finish settling down before he was ousted.
At 8:51 AM Ares brought more food to the box. Astrid took it and handled the feeding. At 8:05 Astrid was off the brood and picking at stones. While she was busy with that, we got another chance to peruse the eggs for pips. There was nothing conclusive. At 10:13 Ares screeched over to check on the nest. Astrid got up like she was going to let him take over but then changed her mind and sat back down on the clutch. At 11:21 Ares was heard screeching over towards the nest. He arrived with prey in his talons. Astrid scrambled to take it and then she began a feeding. While she was serving up lunch, Ares was giving long calls from the west veranda. Ares jumped into the box at 1:14. He proceeded to circumnavigate Astrid as she sat. Sometimes when he does this, it unsettles her enough for her to get off the eggs, but not this time. She stayed and he left. He went to his pillar perch for a while. At 1:50, he screeched back to the box. This time Astrid got right up and ceded the nest to him. After a minute he got onto the chicks and, after a few minutes, he pulled the eggs to his chest. The fact was, he wasn’t getting the eggs beneath him and didn’t even appear to be trying to do it. Perhaps he knows something that we all don’t (including Astrid) regarding the viability of the two remaining eggs. At 2:05, Astrid was back to the box and she quickly relieved Ares. He had nearly fifteen minutes of brooding, which is far more time than he’s been allocated post hatchings.
At 2:45 PM Astrid gave a short cackle alarm call from the box. A Bald Eagle was traversing the territory. Ares gave a cackle call and some long calls from the steeple perch. Astrid was upset too but neither falcon pursued the eagle. It was already too far away to worry about. At 3:25 Astrid hopped out onto the crossperch. From there she flew into the canyon, leaving the chicks and eggs alone. Ares was on the crossperch before she was gone a minute. She possibly dove at a Pigeon after that. At 3:30 she brought some leftovers to the box and started a feeding. At 3:48 Ares brought more food. She took it from him and tried feeding that to the chicks as well. At 4:36 Ares was on the east veranda staring into an office window. Seven minutes later he was giving chirp-type alarm calls and tore off after something. At 5:47 he was on the steeple but not for long. At the same time, Astrid was looking all around and was obviously concerned about something that was happening. She began calling. Ares was on the lookout spot on the roof of the State Building. At 6:33 he came to a ledge east of the box and began giving long calls. From there he ambled into the box and tried to get a late turn brooding. He walked up directly behind Astrid but she wouldn’t budge. He gave up and flew to the State Building. Ares stayed there until about 8 PM and then he was presumably off to a night perch. Astrid was settled on her brood and would likely be there all night. Can we still expect another hatch or two from this nest? Maybe, but each day that goes by means its less and less likely to happen. We shall see. Goodnight Falcons.
