Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Thursday, February 23rd, 2023
The winter storm continued through the night leaving a few inches of snow and an ice glaze on everything. The temperature stayed just below the freezing point all day. Ares screeched to the nestbox at 5:30 AM. He called for Astrid sporadically, but she didn’t show up until an hour later. She came to the box for a second and then flew over to perch on one of the pillars to the west of the nestbox. At 7:07 she moved to an east ledge. They mated there at 8:00 AM. Deb actually heard Ares’ mating chatter call. She was getting sound from a new camera that we’ve been trying out. Unfortunately, the sound was intermittent. We continue to have technical gremlins with our audio! It’s a real drag. The falcons mated again at 8:30. Twenty minutes later Ares flew to a west ledge with a Pigeon! Astrid watched him come in with great interest. She then flew right over to meet him and collect her gift. This was the first time in ages we had seen Ares with a Pigeon. Indeed, it seems like he catches just about every bird except Pigeons (Conversely, Astrid only catches Pigeons.) We wondered if he could have just picked up one that Astrid had stored, but that is highly unlikely. If Astrid had caught it, she would have eaten it already. As she dug into her gift, Ares was out of view for a little while. He then showed up on his favorite pillar perch. At 9:24 Astrid finished feeding and left her ledge. Ares responded by excitingly darting over to the nestbox. At 10:09 Ares was still there and working on his super scrape. Perhaps he was going to turn it into an indoor pool. Astrid flew back to an east ledge and Ares responded by flying back to his favorite pillar.
At 11:30 AM Ares flew back to the nest but didn’t stay there. He skipped across the east veranda and perched on its far corner. From there he flew back up to his pillar. It seemed he was really into guarding the nest area today. At noon he flew back to the box only to yo-yo right back to the pillar again. At 1:56 PM Ares came to the east veranda with food. Astrid was still on an east ledge and didn’t seem tempted by her prospective gift. We thought it was because she was still full from her earlier meal, but then we noticed that the leftovers Ares had in his talons was from a Woodcock. Suddenly it made sense why Astrid refused it. He brought it right over to her ledge but she still wouldn’t take it. After a few minutes he gave up and probably put it back in storage. Perhaps he will try to give it to her again tomorrow – when she least expects it. At 2:34 Ares was inside the nestbox working on his mega scrape. At 2:52 the falcons mated again on the east ledge. He went to the box right afterwards and then to the west veranda. At 4:10 Astrid had moved to the west veranda, and Ares to the west office perch. Ten minutes later Ares brought food (not the Woodcock) to a west ledge. When Astrid didn’t meet him there he brought it to the east veranda, and then to the west veranda where she was waiting. That time she took it from him and proceeded to eat it right there. At 4:29 Astrid was done with her meal and she wiped her bill on the veranda’s cross perch. Ares was back on his usual pillar by point. At 5:15 Astrid flew off to her night perch. Seventy-five minutes later Ares had gone off as well. Goodnight all.