Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Sunday, March 19th, 2023
The overnight was like the dead of winter with a low temperature of only 19 degrees. Strong winds and some lake effect snow squalls persisted through much of the day. The high temperature for the day came close to the freezing point. Ares made his first appearance at the nest box at 4:07 AM and stayed for about an hour. At 6:41 he came back to the nest with a prey item. At the time Astrid was in a windowsill on the State Building. When she didn’t come over to get her gift Ares flew over and landed in the window next to hers. She still didn’t want the food, so Ares flew back to the nest with it. Ultimately, he stored it on one of his pantry ledges. The prey appeared to be part of a Woodcock which might explain why Astrid wasn’t interested. At 8:00 Ares was taking a nap inside the box. Astrid was still on the State Building. At one point Ares was awake and perched over his mega scrape. It almost looked like he was trying to lay an egg.
At 10:15 PM snow squalls started hitting the downtown area. Ares had been up but he returned to the box at 10:42. At 12:46 PM the snowfall had paused and Ares was up. He returned to the box at 12:53. At 1:39 the pair held a ledge display inside the nest box. There was a fiar amount of beaking involved in that dance. After it was over, about 8 minutes later, Ares flew out. Once again it was snowing heavily. At 4:37 Ares returned to the box. Astrid had been on the State Building for a while at that point. The snow squalls were continuing on and off. At 5:37 both falcons were out of view for a little while. Ares returned to the box at 5:46 and a minute later Astrid joined him for a ledge display. During most of the dance Ares was standing on his scrape. Like the last display, this dance featured a lot of beaking. Ares left at 5:55. At 6:26 PM Ares came to the box with leftovers of something. Astrid accepted it in the nest and flew over to the hotel with it. Meanwhile the persistent wind was buffeting the PTZ cams. At 6:36 Astrid was done with her meal and she flew back to perch on the State Building. As she arrived, Ares left his perch on the same building and went to the box. At 6:49 both falcons were on the north face of the State Building. At 7:00 Pm both were out of view and perhaps off to night perches.