The overnight period was cold with temperatures dipping just below the freezing point. The sun was out for much of the day, and the temperature reached the high 40’s by noon and 60 degrees by midafternoon. Astrid spent the night on the eggs. Once again there was no falcon activity in the small hours which seems to be the new normal. Ares screeched to the box at 5:52 AM and the pair executed a quick switch. At 6:06 Astrid landed on the Sate Building and her move was announced by Ares. She was up and flying again at 7:10. At 8:25 she moved from the steeple to the nestbox. Another quick switch took place and then Astrid was back on the eggs. At 10:50 AM we heard Ares giving chirp-type warning calls from somewhere in the canyon. Astrid began giving alarm calls as well and then she got off the eggs. Both falcons quickly flew out of our view. We noticed that there were some people on the roof of the County Building and there were also two cranes operating to the west of the hotel – both are things that will upset Astrid during the breeding season, however, we think they were reacting to a falcon intruder in the downtown area – one we never saw. At 10:58 Astrid returned to the nest and got right back on the eggs. We didn’t see Ares again until a few minutes before noon when he screeched to the crossperch. Once again, the falcons performed a rapid changeover and Ares got his turn on the eggs. Meanwhile Astrid took a perch on the State Building.
At 12:31 PM Astrid left the State Building and Ares reacted with squeaking calls from the nest. She next came to the crossperch and asked to mate. Ares responded pretty quickly. He got off the eggs and the pair mated. Obviously, we are well removed from egg-laying time now, so any mating we observe is for pair bonding purposes. At 2:06 Ares came back to the box with prey. Astrid scrambled over the crossperch to take it and then she flew over to the hotel. It was a small meal, and she had finished with it and over to the steeple five minutes later. At 2:42 they did another quick changing of the guard and Astrid took over on the eggs. The next switch happened at 4:06. It was also a quick one, and Ares was back incubating. The temperature in the afternoon reached 60 degrees and the sun was flooding into the nestbox. Still, it wasn’t enough to warrant shading the eggs. And as it is have yet to see any shading yet this season. At 4:25 Ares was calling from the nest, but we didn’t know what his issue was. He didn’t leave the nest so whatever it was it was short of an emergency. At 5:13 Astrid came over to the box. She was asking to take over on the eggs, but Ares didn’t want to go. They had a long negotiation session, but Ares still didn’t budge. She stepped on his tail and that didn’t influence him either. Finally, she just stood next to him and looked at him. That did the trick. He was out and she climbed onto the eggs. It was 5:22 PM and she was probably in place for the night.