Some rain fell overnight, and the temperature stayed in the low forties. After daybreak there were a few intense rain squalls and the wind became strong and steady. By mid-morning the rain had cleared, the sun had come out, and the temperature surged into the 50’s. It would ultimately hit 70 degrees by mid-afternoon! The falcons were eager to get the day underway. Ares came to the box at 5:00 AM on the dot. Astrid came to a west ledge at the same time. Almost immediately she was asking to mate. He dove into the canyon like he was game but didn’t double back. In fact, he didn’t come back for another 15 minutes. I reckon he took the scenic route. At 5:30 she was on the State Building, and he was giving long calls at the nestbox. Ten minutes later he was up. We heard some distant calling, but we don’t think there was a mating attempt. At 6:20 both falcons converged on the nestbox. She then immediately flew out again. Some crows were calling in the canyon and the falcons weren’t pleased about it. The seem OK with the crows coming through outside of breeding season, but now things are different. He came in and out of the box a couple times in rapid succession. Was he chasing off crows between visits? Astrid then returned to her west ledge perch. He was in the box again and vocalizing. He started doing some housework; he made a big scrape in the gravel. At 6:25 Astrid was up again and flew over to the hotel. She wasn’t there for very long. Meanwhile Ares had gone to his lookout post on the roof of the State Building. At 6:43 he came back to the box calling. Ten minutes later she was on the west veranda asking to mate. He tried to comply, but his flight approach was off and the attempt was aborted.
At 7:20 AM Astrid was napping on the west veranda perch when Ares flew through the canyon screeching. He landed on a west ledge with prey, and she eagerly scrambled over to take it from him. She got it in her talons and started feeding on it right there on the ledge. At 7:30 Ares was back to the box and the pair was having a conversation. She moved to an east ledge and they mated there. It was their first successful mating of the day. After being at the box for a little while Ares moved to the west ledge to finish the leftovers from Astrid’s meal. He brought a scrap back to the box to finish. Following that, both falcons were guarding the box on either veranda – him on the west and her on the east. By 8:20 the wind had increased although the falcons didn’t seem to notice, and they certainly weren’t put out by it. High wind is never a problem for them; to the contrary, it represents limitless free rides. He was back in the box at 8:37 and then was up ten minutes later. She was on the east veranda until close to 8:30 and then she went over to perch on the Grace Church steeple. The pair had an aborted mating attempt there at 9:40. Twenty minutes later he was back to the box. At 8:30 he got up, stretched, fanned out his tail feathers, and hopped out onto the crossperch. He then gave a long call into the canyon. Ten minutes later he was giving chirp-type alarm calls. There was a flacon intruder in the canyon. Astrid didn’t seem very upset about it which was a pretty good indication that it was a male. Ares launched from the box, came right back, and then launched again. he was giving piercing alarm chirps the whole time. Astrid came to the nest at 11:12 AM. She kept looking up so perhaps Ares was sparring with another falcon in the airspace above the canyon. She flew only a minute later.
Ares returned to the nest box at 11:28 AM. Astrid was on the State Building at the time. They were both gone two minutes later. At 11:38 one of them was soaring in a circle high above the State Building – perhaps guarding the airspace. Ares came to the box calling at 12:05 PM. He acted like he saw his mate, but we couldn’t find her with our cameras. Almost a half hour later we picked her out on one of the lower steeple perches. How long had she been there? She was doing a lot of preening as if she had recently bathed. At 1:00 were heard Ares’ characteristic screech call from a long way off. A minute later he was back to the box and giving squeaking calls. Ares gets extremely vocal during the breeding season. Minutes later he moved from the box to the State Building. At 1:20 he was to the box again and then up. She left the State Building at 1:21 and then Ares arrived at the box once more. He called to her after she landed on the State Building. At around 2:20 PM the pair came together at the nest for a ledge display. Following his departure, Astrid puttered around in the box for a while. She made a scrape at one point. At 2:36 Ares became very excited and was giving loud chirping-type alarm calls. Astrid was still in the box at the time and didn’t seem too worried about anything. He was on the State Building and wasn’t involved in chasing after anyone, so the intruder probably wasn’t a Peregrine.
At 3:20 PM Ares brought prey to the nest and tried to call Astrid over to get it. She didn’t want to leave her ledge on the State Building and so he brought the food to her. She accepted it and ate it right there on the ledge. Ares then flew back to the box and she joined him there at 3:28. The pair then partook of their second ledge display of the afternoon. At the end of the dance, he flew out into an increasingly windy canyon and she stayed inside doing housekeeping chores – mostly digging in the corner and biting at stones. For the next two hours Ares was in and out of the box a half-dozen times. She was mostly on the State Building on a few different perches. At 5:08 she was on a windowsill. It is conceivable that we missed a mating or two during this period. It was very windy and difficult to hear their vocalizations over our live stream. We last saw Astrid at 5:35 and Ares at 5:55. Most probably, they were off to their night perches. Goodnight falcons.