Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Thursday, March 16th, 2023
It was cold overnight with temperatures down around 26 degrees. The day was mostly overcast with a high temperature of 48 degrees. The sun finally came out only a couple of hours before sunset. Ares arrived at the nest box at 4:43 AM – bright and early, although maybe not so bright. Astrid arrived on the long perch right after Ares but she only stayed for a couple of minutes. We think she was hoping he had a food gift for her. He didn’t. He just wanted to dance. Astrid declined the invitation and flew over to the State Building. At 6 o’clock Ares was back to the box. This time he had a Woodcock dangling from his talons. He waited for a while for Astrid to come over and take it but of course she didn’t. She still doesn’t like Woodcocks. At 6:08 Ares went and stored his catch. After that both Falcons were on the State Building. At 6:55 Ares returned to the box and was wiping his bill on the crossperch. That usually means there was a food exchange, but Astrid was still on the State Building and didn’t appear to have anything, but we couldn’t tell for sure. At 7:09 the falcons mated on an east the ledge. Thirty minutes later Ares was on the east veranda with a fresh caught Starling. When Astrid wouldn’t leave her ledge to come over for it, he hopped over and gave it to her. At 8:07 Astrid was on the State Building and Ares was taking a nap on the crossperch.
At 10:06 AM the Peregrines performed a ledge display inside the box. Ares left after about ten minutes while Astrid stayed to do some housework. She spent some time standing in Ares’ scrape and then she bit at the lip of the box for a little while. A very important task indeed. At 11:05 the pair performed another ledge display. This one was short, and Astrid bailed right at the beginning. We are not sure if she was spooked by something or what the issue was. At 12:12 PM Ares brought food inside the nest box. Astrid barreled in, grabbed it and headed for the hotel. At 12:28 Ares was back to the nest box and Astrid was on the State Building again. At 2:38 PM she had moved to the west office perch (also known as Deb’s perch) and Ares was inside the nest box. At 4:55 Ares gave Astrid more food at the nest box. He was in super provider mode today. Once again she took her gift over to the hotel. At 5:27 Ares was back in the box and Astrid was on the steeple. At 6:14 the falcons performed their third ledge display at the box. Ares was out after four minutes and went to the steeple. Inside the box Astrid made a scrape on top of Ares’ super scrape and did some more housework. Astrid then sat still in the nest for more than an hour while Ares remained on watch on the steeple. When Astrid begins doing long-ish sittings in the nest we know that egg laying isn’t all that far off. Perhaps it’s only ten days away or maybe less. One thing was for sure, it wouldn’t be tonight. They both left for their night perches at around 7:40 PM. Goodnight falcons.