Sunday, March 27, 2022 – Winter Returns with a Vengeance & Late Day Intruder

The overnight was chilly, windy, and it snowed periodically. The temperature was just below freezing by morning, and it became colder as the day progressed – ultimately dropping to the low twenties by nightfall.  During the day the wind became steadier and snow squalls were sometimes intense. Neither Astrid or Ares visited the nestbox during the night. Ares arrived at 5:07 AM. Almost an hour after arriving, he abruptly departed. We heard him screeching from somewhere in the dark canyon. He screeched back to the nest at 6:27. He was off again fifteen minutes later. Perhaps he went to rouse Astrid because she came to the box right after that. At 6:52 a food transfer happened away from the nest. Astrid took the gift and flew over to the hotel with it. It was very windy by this point and the PTZ cameras were shuddering. By the way she plucked and fed it looked like she was more ravenous than usual. To our certain knowledge, she did feed a couple of times yesterday, so she shouldn’t be that hungry. However, she’s in egg production mode now so her nutritional requirements are greater. While she fed, he watched over her from a high perch on the State Building. At 7:14 when she was finished, he went to the nestbox. She flew to the State Building five minutes later. By this time the snow was blowing sideways in the canyon. At a few minutes before 8:00 AM both falcons were on the State Building. She dashed over to the box at 8:15. Ares joined her there thirty minutes later and two falcons performed a lively ledge display. They switched sides a couple of times during the dance. A couple of minutes later Ares bailed out of the box. By then our PTZ camera was obscured by ice so we were partially blind to the falcons’ actions.

At 10:09 AM the falcons switched at the box and Ares took over from Astrid on the empty scrape. He abandoned the nest and the invisible egg at 10:18. At 10:36 he came back to the nest with prey (a Woodcock). He called for Astrid but left when she didn’t show up immediately. He was back to the box with the food about five minutes later. Perhaps he flew by her with the prey and tried to entice her to come to the box. He came back without it a few minutes later. At 10:52 Astrid showed up on the State Building. They mated there at 11:08. It is possible we missed some matings today – the loud wind sound doubtlessly prevented us from hearing Ares’ mating chatter call. Astrid came to the box and was calling at 11:25. Following that she did some housekeeping chores and she bit at the lip of the box for a while.  At 11:45 Ares arrived at the box and the pair switched. He took over on the scrape as she hopped out of the box and literally floated away like a balloon on the high wind. Five minute later he sailed out of the box himself while emitting a high-pitched version of his screech call. At 11:52 Astrid was on the State Building and Ares was back at the box. She would remain on the State Building and fairly sedentary for almost 6 hours, while he made numerous visits to the box. It’s possible and even likely that we missed some matings during this time. At 5:42 Astrid came to the box and it looked like the pair was going to start a ledge display, but it turned into another changing of the guard – with Astrid out and Ares in. With the amount of time, he was spending at the nest, someone might think he was the one about to lay an egg. As for Astrid, she was back on the State Building.

Ares was back to the nest at 6:00 PM. He began giving chirp-type alarm calls 20 minutes later. That meant there was a Peregrine intruder in the canyon. He went careening off into the windy canyon on an intercept course. At 6:25 we got a glimpse of Ares and the intruder in flight over the State Building. They looked poised to spar but then quickly flew too high for our PTZ cameras. Astrid stayed in place while Ares delt with the intruder which indicated that the gender of the stranger was male – therefore Ares’ problem. Ares was back to the box at 6:50 and the pair shared a very short ledge display. This time Ares left and allowed Astrid to remain in the box. Will she stay all night? Will she lay her first egg of the season? We shall see. Goodnight falcons.