The overnight was very cold with temperatures down in the single digits. Fortunately, the winds did die down and there was no precipitation. Skies were partly cloudy through the day and temperatures rose steadily to just short of the freezing point. Not quite a summer day but we’ll take it. At 5:23 AM Ares screeched to the box. He hopped inside, facing out, and proceeded to be very quiet. At 6:32 he began producing light chirps. Sure enough, he saw Astrid in flight. He became highly animated when she landed on a ledge to the east of the nest and the pair shared some spritely conversation. At 6:41 Astrid invited him over to mate, but when he flew in close, she turned and tucked into the ledge. He aborted his approach and returned to the box. At 7:20 he gave a few long calls at the nest. She responded with loud “chirrup” calls. A few minutes later he took off and didn’t make another attempt at mating. She called a few times during the course of the next hour, but we couldn’t find him with our cameras. It was likely that he was out hunting. At 9:10 he arrived on the crossperch with prey. She came right over and accepted it inside the box. She took it over to the hotel and made it breakfast. He went over to perch on a high ledge on the State Building.
At 10:34 both falcons converged at the nest for a ledge display. Afterwards, she stayed on to do some housekeeping chores. She also made two scrapes in the gravel. At noon, she was out on the crossperch and he was out of view again. We thought that maybe he was out hunting for another gift for her. He came back to the box at 12:22 PM and she left simultaneously. He then began calling wildly as if he saw a falcon intruder in the canyon. We saw nothing on our cams. He launched from the box and quickly disappeared from view. Astrid was on the steeple at that time and didn’t seem the least bit anxious. At 12:54 Ares flew up to mate with her, but his approach angle was bad, and he had to veer off. At 1:24 Ares came to the box with prey. Astrid immediately arrived on the west veranda – accepting the gift on the veranda platform. As expected, she then brought it to the hotel. Ares stayed at the box for about five minutes and then flew off into the canyon. She finished her lunch before 1:30 and was up again. Ares was back at the nest and calling at 1:40 PM. He made a scrape in the gravel at one point. He did some communicating with Astrid who had taken a perch on the State Building. They remained in place until Ares left at 4:20.
At 5:13 PM we heard Ares give a double screech call from somewhere in the canyon. As it happened, he was flying in with prey. Astrid darted over to the box, and he landed on a ledge to the west of the nest. While he plucked his quarry, she called and waited for him to bring it over to her. After several minutes went by, it became clear that Ares was doing more than plucking – he was eating it too. Astrid buzzed by him and then returned to the box as a reminder that the food was supposed to be a gift, but he went right on feeding. She then flew over to the hotel to wait in a different place. At 5:27 he took off and it wasn’t clear if he had leftovers in tow or not. Astrid got excited and flew over to the box. She was calling very eagerly, but nothing was brought to her. If there was anything left from the meal, he must have stored it. Her expectations dashed, she went over and perched on the roof of the County Building; he went there too, perching only a few feet away from her. Apparently, there was no lingering resentment over dinner. The two stayed there until close to 5:00 PM, and then they went off to their night perches. Goodnight falcons.
