Astrid and Ares’ tenth breeding season is well underway. On Thursday the pair was highly active in their downtown canyon. The weather was mild, especially for a day in mid-February. We initially saw one falcon perched on the state building at 4:30 AM. Two hours later that bird had left and we noticed that one was on the lookout post on the roof. Most likely they were there for the purpose of hunting and not because of an intruder. Ares first came to the nest box at 6:50 AM. Astrid arrived only moments later. Despite his invitation to come inside for a ledge display, she flew off again and took a perch on the steeple. It was a familiar dynamic – Ares wanted to dance, and Astrid wanted to mate. Since the sound on our video feed continues to malfunction (despite many attempts to fix it) we are not hearing when matings take place. Normally we rely on hearing Ares’ mating chatter. We are also missing alarm calls, so we don’t know when the falcons are dealing with intruders. Perhaps most of all, we miss hearing Ares screech to the nest box each morning.
The falcons danced at 9:25. Following that, Ares rustled up some prey and took it to the hotel for processing. Astrid flew over and perched next to him, but he wasn’t ready to share and took his catch to another ledge. Astrid then flew to the nest, but her gift was not forthcoming. Indeed, Ares seemed to be eating it himself. Only the day before, it was Astrid that had procured the prey, and Ares who waited expectantly for his share. Absurdly, he walked in circles around her, stealing bites as she fed. She allowed it, and never mantled once. When she finished she left him a decent chunk of leftovers. At 1:00 PM Ares was at the nest again and calling for Astrid to join him. She was on the steeple at that point. It is likely we missed an afternoon mating or two. At 3:34 they did mate at the box and then, twenty minutes later, there was an aborted mating attempt. At 4:00 Ares finally gave Astrid her food gift and she darted over to the hotel with it. We didn’t see them after 5:00 PM and believed they had gone to their night perches. Goodnight falcons.
