Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Monday, March 27th, 2023
It was cool overnight with temperatures in the high 20’s. Cloud cover became denser as the day progressed and rain came in the late afternoon. The day’s high temperature was in the mid-forties. Astrid arrived from the east veranda at 12:14 AM. She stayed there until 3:58. Ares showed up on the crossperch less than a minute after she had gone but he did not stay. Astrid flew over to the box right after he left. She left at 4:10 but returned ten minutes later. At 6:00 Ares came to the nest and Astrid left. We saw Ares fly over to the west face of the State Building and land on one of his pantry ledges. A while later he brought food to Astrid on the west veranda. She took it and flew over to the hotel. He sat next to her on the hotel ledge for a little while as she fed. By 7:03 he was back at the nestbox. Fifteen minutes later he was giving chirp-type alarm calls which could mean there was a falcon intruder in the canyon. He took off a minute later. At 7:29 we heard Ares’ mating chatter. They had mated on the steeple. They mated there again at about 7:43.
Astrid was at the nest box at 9:10 AM. By 9:48 she had moved out onto the west veranda. Ares brought food to her at 10:10. She took it but she must have stored it because she was on the steeple only a few minutes later and did not have it. At 10:55 Astrid went to the west veranda briefly before returning to the steeple. At 11 55 she was back on the veranda. Both falcons were staying close to the box, but Astrid was not doing a sitting which meant that she was not close to laying an egg. At 2:03 PM Astrid was once again on the steeple and Ares was in the nest box. At 2:45 she had bounced back to the west veranda. She left the veranda and flew over to the box – seemingly to wake Ares up. He had been napping on his scrape. At 2:50 the falcons mated on the west veranda. Ares returned to the box afterwards. At 3:24 there was a ledge display in progress. The dance was mostly a standoff, but it did involve some beaking. At 3:38 Ares was back in the box and seemed to be lobbying for another dance. Astrid was on the crossperch but did not stay and flew over to the State Building. At 3:57 both Falcons were out of view for a while. Ares was back at the box 10 minutes later. We still didn’t see Astrid anywhere but it was highly likely Ares had her in view. Rain was falling by 5:15. Ares brought prey to the east veranda at 5:25. At that time Astrid was on the steeple. Ares buzzed by her once and then swooped up to the nest box. She took it from him at the nest and then flew over to the hotel. At 5:36 Astrid was back on the west veranda. Fifteen minutes later she had moved to Deb’s perch. Ares remained in the box. One would think he was the one that was going to lay the egg. At 7:22 they did a practice changeover – Astrid came in and Ares went out. Astrid stayed in the box until close to 7:50 PM and then she flew off to a night perch. Will Astrid be back tonight? We shall see. Goodnight all.