A relatively mild overnight was followed by a very foggy early morning. The fog rose not long after sunrise and the temperature did as well; from the high 30’s to over 60 degrees by midday. Astrid spent almost the entire night on the crossperch at the nest box. At 12:00 PM Ares came over and the pair shared a quick midnight dance. After saying how Ares rarely sleeps and how Astrid never seems to sleep at all, we got to see Astrid napping in the early morning. She always must prove us wrong! Regardless, the falcons only take catnaps. At 6:35 Ares emerged from the darkness and came into the box. He was excitedly calling, but Astrid immediately flew off and disappeared into the foggy canyon. She reappeared on a west pillar at 7:20 and they mated there a few minutes later. He then returned to the box while Astrid enjoyed a short snooze. At 8:00 she landed on the west perch. They mated there a few minutes later and then she came to the box. They mated again at 8:20. Ten minutes later we heard Ares screeching from somewhere in the canyon. He then appeared at the nest with a Killdeer in his talons. It may have been the same one he brought yesterday, and he just took it out of storage. At 8:44 both falcons were perched on the steeple, but that didn’t last long, and Ares flew back to the nest. The pair mated on the steeple at 9:40.
At 9:47 AM Ares was in the nest giving squeaking vocalizations. At one point he made a scrape in the gravel. At 10:17 he switched to giving long calls. She didn’t come to the nest for another half hour and when she did, he left. Their urge to relive each other at the nest is getting stronger as they come closer to egg incubation time. They mated at just before 11:00. At 11:40 Astrid and Ares were at the box again and conversing. She moved over to the west veranda, and they mated soon after. At close to noon Astrid hazed the fifteenth floor of the bank. It was a light hazing – consisting of only three flybys. She landed on the office perch after, but then relocated to the steeple. Meanwhile, Ares returned to the nest. She abruptly darted off at 12:31 PM and he followed right after. At 12:36 a human hand came through the hatch in the back of the nestbox, grabbed a pesky feather that had been stuck on the fisheye camera and then disappeared. It was a lighting fast operation. Fortunately, Astrid didn’t see it happen. At 12:50 Astrid came back into view when she took a high perch on the State Building. At 1:20 she stopped at the nest but then was up again after only a few moments. He came to the box squeaking at 1:35 PM. She flew onto the crossperch and shared some words with him. She then jumped into the box for a ledge display. The dance lasted less than five minutes and then Ares was out. She the lingered inside the nest to do housekeeping and to make a scrape. She left at 1:49 and we’re not sure where she went. Ares was back at the box squeaking at 2:10, so she must have been somewhere close by and somewhere he could see. He flew five minutes later and then both were out of view.
At 2:33 PM Astrid reappeared on the State Building. Ares showed up at the box at about the same time. The temperature had reached 68 degrees and the sky was almost cloudless. Ares screeched out of the box at 2:45. He was being very intense. Ten minutes later he showed up with prey. Astrid flew to the box, and they did a quick food transfer on the east veranda. She took the meal (which looked just like a hunk of meat) to the hotel. Ares stayed at the box for a little while and gave some long calls. At 3:15 the pair got together at the nest for a ledge display. He was out after five minutes, and Astrid stayed on to do more housekeeping chores. She left at around 3:30. He was in the box at just after 4:00 practicing shading eggs. He did it for about 45 minutes, so he was practicing pretty hard! At 5:00 PM both falcons were out of view. He was back to the box and calling ten minutes later, but then he was up again. At 5:20 we heard his mating chatter call which meant that they were somewhere nearby. As it happened, she was on the steeple. There was an aborted mating attempt there at 5:46. He came down on her but she wasn’t ready and threw him off. He diverted and came back to the nest. At 6:00, first Ares and then Astrid darted from their perches. Astrid came to the box a minute later. Ten minutes later Ares arrived at the east veranda with prey. It looked to be the same Killdeer he tried to give to her before. This time she accepted it and took it over to the hotel. While she fed two Pigeons were a few yards away from her on the same ledge. At 6:20 we saw that Ares was perched on a light post on the roof of the Adirondack Bank. He doesn’t perch there very often, so consequently, we don’t often look for him there. Since he was perched close to our PTZ 1 camera we were able to get some nice video of him. Of course, one of the advantages of that spot was that he was able to see both Astrid on the hotel and the nestbox – the two things he’s most interested in. At 6:28 Astrid arrived on the crossperch, and Ares came into the box. Both vocalized loudly. She moved onto the east veranda, and they mated there a couple of minutes later. Ares went to the County Building after that, and Astrid joined him there at 6:48. He used that as his cue to go back to the nest. They flew off to night perches at around 7:35 PM. Goodnight Falcons.
