Rain and chilly temperatures marked the overnight period. After a few rain-free hours in the morning, the precipitation rebooted, making for a pretty miserable morning. The temperature barely made it into the forties by midday. The afternoon was a little warmer and the sun came out occasionally. However, the wind did pick up. Ares brought prey to the nest box at 4:18 AM. We weren’t sure what it was, but it wasn’t a Woodcock. She accepted it and flew off into the darkness. As best we could determine she didn’t fly to the hotel, but it was very dark, and we couldn’t see the ledges very well. Before Ares got onto the eggs, we could tell that there were still four, which meant that Astrid didn’t lay a fifth egg during the night. There was only a remote possibility that she would have. Astrid returned to the crossperch at 4:59. They did a rapid changing of the guard and Astrid settled onto the eggs. All the morning switches were fast ones today, and neither Astrid or Ares protested leaving the nest. They switched again at 6:14 and then Ares was incubating. Astrid was on the State Building within a few minutes of leaving. We noticed late last night that the video feeds on our website were not working. Our direct feed to the cameras were up, so Deb and I were able to monitor. However, I was hampered by not having the streaming audio which I typically get from the website. That’s the way we keep track of happenings in real time. As it happened our streaming provider managed to correct the problem by late afternoon, so that was good news.
At 6:27 AM Ares got up and left the nest. He was then back only a minutes later. It may have been a mating attempt, but we couldn’t confirm that. The falcons switched again at around 7:43 and then again at 8:03. During the latter switch Ares brought a small prey item. She accepted it on the crossperch and flew over to the hotel. Twenty minutes later she was on the steeple. The falcons next changing of the guard took place at around 8:38 and then Astrid was on the eggs. They switched almost an hour later and then again at 10:35. Indeed, they were switching roughly once an hour. At noon Astrid started calling out like she wanted Ares to relieve her. He showed up a few minutes later and they quickly switched. Ares got onto the eggs and Astrid took a relatively low perch on the State Building. At 12:40 she had moved to a perch on the south side of the steeple. At 2:12 she switched steeple perches. There was another changing of the guard at around 2:30 and then Astrid was on the nest. At 3:18 Ares was back at the box and trying to pry Astrid off the eggs. She refused to go, and he gave up after a few minutes. At 4:12 PM he was back and trying once again to shift her. Once more she wouldn’t go and he gave up and flew off. At 5:09 he was back and this time she was ready to go. She flew over to the State Building and perched there until 7:00 PM. Ares squeaked when she left. It turned out she had taken something from Ares’ pantry and brought it over to the hotel. After finishing her dinner, she went to the crossperch. This time it was Ares that didn’t want to go. She didn’t press him and flew over to the steeple. At 7:37 PM she was back to the box. Ares was ready to go, and she was ready to take over for the night shift. Goodnight falcons.
