The overnight period was cool and wet. Temperatures again were in the 40’s. After sunrise, the rain mostly stopped, but the sky remained overcast. There were breaks of sun in the afternoon. Astrid was on her clutch all night long. Ares showed up on the State Building at some point after 5 AM. At 5:25 Astrid came off the nest and flew out of the box. She was back in less than a minute. We saw that the last egg was still unhatched. At this point we think it’s unlikely to ever hatch, but we will hold off another day or so before making the official call. At 5:39 Ares brought prey to the nest. Astrid took it from him and began a feeding. It was a good feeding and all three chicks seemed to get some. She flew out with the leftovers at 5:52. Ares came in, approached the chick pile in the middle of the box, and moved towards it. He was just about to attempt to brood them when Astrid piled back into the box. She still had the leftovers from the last meal with her, which was surprising. What was more surprising was that she was trying to feed them again. Ares looked rather confused at this. Astrid too seemed to recognize her folly and left the box again. She stored the food and came right back. Ares left and she was back to brooding.
At 7:10 Ares brought more food to the box. Again, Astrid took it and started a feeding. The same scenario was repeated at 7:55 – another feeding handled by Astrid. However, during the latter feeding the chicks were not all that interested. They must have been too full. At 9:46 Ares came to the box and asked to have a turn sitting with the nestlings. Astrid vocalized and sent him out again. The next feeding was at 10:49. Once again, Ares brought the prey and Astrid did the feeding. By 10:56 she was back to brooding the clutch. At 12:06 PM Ares landed on a steeple perch. He and Astrid proceeded to vocalize with each other from their respective perches. At 12:26 he once again came to the nest box and requested time with the kids. She sent him away again. A few minutes later she was back to brooding. He brought more food at 12:30 PM. She took it and fed it out. When she finished she went back to brooding. At 2:34 Ares was back and once again asking to sit with the chicks. She relented this time and allowed him to take over. As it happened, she was gone only for a couple of minutes. She came in and he went out. He knew the drill. Astrid is no nonsense once she has babies in the box. Ares no longer gets away with much. Certainly, the days of stepping on her tail to get his turn are long gone. A passing hawk (probably a Red-tailed Hawk) caused Astrid to give her cackle alarm call. She was really mad and exploded out of the box. A&A climbed high above the canyon and then dove straight down onto the hawk at least twice. The intruder began flapping quickly and headed east and out of the territory as fast as possible. The falcons returned to the nest only a minute after she had gone. As she got back to brooding, Ares went over to a steeple perch. There he was seen trying to cough up a pellet at 3:44. Five minutes later we could hear him giving long calls.
At 4:40 Ares relieved Astrid at the nest. She came in with food only three minutes later and his brooding session was over. After the meal Astrid did some shading for the chicks. The sun was out and was flooding the box. It wasn’t exactly hot or even warm out but when the sun is full force in that south-facing box, it warms up quite quickly. She didn’t shade for very long. At 4:57, movement in a window in an office adjacent to the box got Astrid very upset and she darted out of the box. Ares came right over to the crossperch to guard the nestlings. Astrid was back and brooding a couple of minutes later. At 5:47 Ares brought prey to the box. It was plucked and partially worked over, but it still was quite large. It was probably a Mourning Dove. Astrid took the food and began feeding the chicks their dinner. Ten minutes after the meal began Astrid was out with the leftovers. Ares came in while she was gone, but it was for less and a minute. She was on the nest probably for the night. He was visible on the State Building until 7:45 or so. Goodnight falcons.
