It was another chilly night with temps down into the low 40’s. Rain fell off and on. Morning was overcast and cool. Temperatures stayed low. In the afternoon, temps rose into the 50’s but the wind brought a chill. Astrid was on the west veranda for most of the night. Ares brought food at 4:34 AM. Astrid came over, grabbed the prey, and served it to the nestlings. At 6:03 one of the nestlings found a food scrap on the floor, held it with her foot, and picked away at it. At 6:29 Ares brought prey to the nest. Astrid handled the feeding. As is typical of late, one of the chicks stands back while the other two partake. The other comes in at about the half-way point. After the meal Astrid spent some time on the steeple. It was Saturday and there was no need for her to obsessively monitor the “office monkeys”. At 8:48 Ares screeched over to the box with the next meal. Astrid served it out to the chicks. After the meal Astrid picked at some food scraps in the box. One of the chicks stomped on its sibling and then beaked with it.
At 9:16 AM Ares came to the nest with more food. Astrid took it from him and handled the feeding. Only a few minutes into the feeding, she left the box with the food. She must’ve decided that the nestlings had already eaten enough and the food should be stored for later. After stowing the food, she went back to her steeple perch. Ares was on guard duty on the east veranda. Ares brought food at 10:09. Astrid fed the chicks. He went to his pillar perch following the drop off. At noon Ares came to the box for a chick-check. While there he scrounged around on the floor for scraps, presumably to feed to the babies. While doing this a chick backed up in his direction and plastered him in the face with whitewash! Poor Ares! He left shortly after. I think we need to put a towel dispenser in that box. At 12:56 Ares came to a west ledge with prey. Astrid met him there, but then both falcons abruptly flew off. Ares returned – this time to the east veranda. Astrid met him there. After a brief tug-o-war, she took the food into the nest and started a feeding. As it happened that would be the last feeding for serval hours. The appearance of the nestlings is changing again. Dark contour feathers are starting to poke through the fluffy white down feathers on the larger two nestlings. Those two are just beginning to get the salt & pepper look. Also, the nestlings’ dark and tan flight feathers continue to grow at a rapid pace, creating an ever-lengthening fringe around their wings and tail. Each day the young birds are less awkward in their movements. Their eyesight also continues to improve. They now see their parents when they are quite far from the nest, and they can track them. They are looking out into the canyon more and more.
Ares came to the box to do a chick-check at 2:21 PM. He started long calling and they all began squealing. Astrid was on the veranda but flew off during the vocal session. Both parents were doing periodic checks at the nest until just after 4:00 and then Ares was out of view for quite a while. Astrid continued to do chick-checks, usually prompting a squeal-fest each time she did. Astrid appeared to be hunting but wasn’t having any luck. She seemed to be waiting for Ares to return with something. The nestlings’ hunger increased as the afternoon wore on. They were screaming at Astrid when she came to check on them. At 6:46 PM Ares finally returned to the nest site. He had prey in his talons. One of the large chicks snatched it from him as soon as he entered the nest. She dragged the food to the back of the box and started picking at it. He followed her in and tried to pull it back. He succeeded and then attempted a feeding. The fisheye camera distorts the size of the birds and so watching it on that cam, Ares looked very tiny compared to the monster-sized babies he was feeding. At 6:49 Astrid came into the box bellowing her donkey call, she grabbed the prey away from Ares and got the feeding going properly. The nest sounded like one might imagine a pterodactyl nest would sound like. All in all, it was a raucous feeding session. When it was over Astrid went out onto the crossperch. The smallest chick stretched his wings out while one of his sisters watched him and cocked her head. Some things just make more sense when seen upside-down.
At 7:23 PM Astrid showed up on the upper ledge of the hotel. Her hunt was successful; she was plucking a Pigeon. Ares landed next to her to check out her catch. He then flew to the box and roused the chicks. At 7:38 she brought her Pigeon to the nestbox. One of the big chicks immediately tried to pull it away from Astrid. She yanked it back and then proceeded to feed the masked thief. Ares arrived with his own catch at 7:50 ish. He stayed on the lip of the box holding his prey as his mate’s feeding was in progress. After a few minutes with no one seemingly noticing him, he began to feed on his catch himself. Finally, he brought it in and began to feed one of the chicks even as Astrid fed the other two. It was a rare double parent feeding. After about 5 minutes Ares’s food ran out and he left the box. Astird’s feeding continued on for another few minutes and then she departed. After the meal, Ares was on his pillar perch and Astrid was on a window ledge east of the nest. They had a short conversation and Ares flew. A little later, Astrid moved to the east veranda. She appeared to be there for the night. Goodnight falcons and all.
