After the rain and snow cleared out, the overnight grew colder with temperatures falling down into the high 20’s. By dawn the sky was clearer, but the wind didn’t relent. Fortunately, falcons love the wind, and they know how to use it. Ares first came to the nestbox at 4:07 AM. Once inside he remained quiet for close to 90 minutes. At 5:38 he came to life and flew into the canyon. He came back only two minutes later with a freshly caught Woodcock. How he was able to catch one that fast and evidently so close to downtown is open to conjecture. He called to Astrid, who by that point had landed on the State Building. He pleaded with her to come over. Of course, she wasn’t going to come over for a Woodcock. She hadn’t suddenly changed her opinion on them since the day before. After a few minutes, Ares floated off with his gift and presumably stored in on one of his pantry ledges. He then took a perch on a high ledge on the State Building’s north face. At 6:02 he had taken to the air again. When looking around with one of the PTZ cameras we noticed that there was a crow on the roof of the bank. It probably sounds like no big deal since they are not uncommon in the downtown area; but it’s unusual for them to perch on the falcon’s building. This individual certainly seemed ill at ease. Astrid must have seen it from her perch, but probably thought he was far enough away from the nest, and so wasn’t in need of harassment. Had he been a Raven she would’ve acted differently since traditionally Ravens can compete for nesting ledges with Peregrines. I recall being downtown a few years ago during the breeding season when a Raven flew low over the canyon and both Astrid and Ares went after it. They drove it hard until it was gone from of the territory.
At 6:18 AM Ares returned to the nest box. He was very excited and was acting like he saw Astrid, but by then she had flown from her perch and we weren’t sure where she went. Perhaps she was doing a flight display for him. She returned to the State Building at 6:23. A half hour later both Peregrines were on the hotel. She was on the upper ledge and he was on the lower. At one point she did a half floating, half swirling down maneuver to his ledge and he took it as a cue to fly. At 6:52 Astrid came to the nestbox. Ares met her there with prey. She reached out to grab it from him on the crossperch and then took the meal over to the hotel. He soon joined her there and stood by while she dined. At 7:21 Ares was at the nest and calling excitedly. He must have seen Astrid flying. He had moved to the State Building by 7:37 and Astrid had gone back over to the hotel. At 8:09 both falcons were at the nestbox engaging in a ledge display. The dance featured a lot of beaking. He dove from the box seven minutes later and she departed soon after him. At 8:40 he was back and calling at the nestbox. He made a nice scrape in the gravel and then floated off into the canyon. At 9:25 were hearing what we thought were distant chirp-type alarm calls. It sounded like Ares but we could tell. The wind was causing so much distortion on the stream’s audio, we couldn’t always tell just what we were hearing. Interestingly, we confirmed no matings today. This was probably because we were trying to do it mostly by sound and specifically by the chatter call that Ares gives when a mating is in progress. At 9:36 we heard Ares’s long calls a few times; they seemed to be coming from some distance away. At 10:12 Ares was at the box again and she was still on the State Building. In fact he was up and back to the box a few more times in rapid succession. Perhaps there was a mating or mating attempt, during this time, we couldn’t confirm anything. At 11:14 Ares was giving long calls in the box. Five minutes later Astrid came over and the two shared a ledge display. There dance consisted of beaking and no fancy dance moves. The pair pretty much held their positions throughout. He was out six minutes later, and she lingered to do some work around the box. She made a scrape and then bit at some stones. She also raked stones with her bill at one point. We don’t see her do that very often.
At 12:17 PM A&A reconvened at the nest and performed another ledge display. This one was near identical to the last. It consisted of some beaking and no moving around. It seemed like we were seeing a repeat. Just like the last time Ares dove out of the box after six minutes. At 12:24 Astrid started calling in the box like she saw Ares fly through. Sure enough he had flown in and had landed on a west ledge. He had prey in his talons. After a minute he flew off without first handing it to Astrid. Astrid left the box at 12:33 and Ares came in right after. It was almost like a switch over of incubation duties, but obviously there are no eggs yet to incubate. At 12:38 Ares was making a real fuss in the box. Maybe she was performing a flight display for him, and we were hearing his reaction to it. He left the box at close to 1:00 PM. Once again, he was back and forth to the box often during the course of the afternoon. He was either getting over-the-top excited and/or calling for his mate to come over. At 3:23 he came to the box with prey. Astrid met him and accepted the gift. She flew off to the southeast with it. By 3:46 he was back in the box giving long calls again. At 4:15 both Peregrines were giving chirp-type alarm calls which usually indicates a Peregrine intruder, but neither Astrid nor Ares left their respected perches. From that we glean it probably wasn’t a Peregrine, but some other raptor species. At 5:37 Ares took off like he was going to mate with Astrid on the State Building but instead he flew past her perch and landed on the northeast lookout post. We are not sure how long he stayed up there. Astrid left her perch at close to 6:00 PM. We watched her fly from her north face perch and dash around the east face. By that point both seemed to be getting settled in for the night. Goodnight all.
More beaking