Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Wednesday, April 12th, 2023
It was warm overnight. The temperature was around 53 degrees. A few stray rain showers were around in the morning but then the skies soon cleared, and the sun was strong. By midafternoon the temperature was 76 degrees. Astrid was on the eggs all night long. Ares arrived at 6:03 and they did a quick switch. For those who wondered if Astrid would break her 10-year streak and produce a fifth egg, she did not. If she was going to do it, last night around midnight would have been the time. We were wondering if Ares would even be able to cover 5 eggs. At 7:00 Astrid was on the steeple. They switched again shortly after that, and then Astrid was back on the eggs. At 8:53 Ares came to the box and requested a turn on the eggs. Astrid did not get up and Ares decided to leave. At 10:08 Ares brought food to the box. Astrid took it on the crossperch. We are not sure where she brought the food or if she ate it. She probably did. At 10:24 she showed up on the State Building. Ares gave a chirp call which let us know that she landed. Ten minutes later she moved to the steeple and once again Ares narrated her move. At 11:04 Astrid came to the crossperch and requested a mating. Less than a minute later they mated. After that Astrid went back onto the eggs. Now that they are past the egg laying stage, mating behavior will come to an end.
At 11:25 AM Ares had moved from the steeple to the lookout post on the roof of the State Building. At 12:44 PM he came to the nest box. He used gentle persuasion to get a turn on the eggs. They did some beaking. However, Astrid didn’t want to leave, and he did not press the matter. He left and flew over to the State Building. At 1:17 Astrid began excitedly calling. She came off the eggs and flew out into the canyon. We thought that perhaps there was an intruder active, but we subsequently learned that someone had been on the roof of the bank building. Regardless Astrid circled the State Building. Landed on a window ledge on the north face, stayed there for a little while and then came back to the nest and the eggs. She had been gone for only two minutes. Meanwhile Ares had been on the lookout post, but he left at 1:20 PM. At 2:37 Astrid shifted from incubating the eggs to shading them. The temperature was around 76 degrees, and the sun was flooding into the box. She didn’t shade for very long and opted to move the clutch closer to the west corner of the box. At 3:29 PM Ares came to the nest and they switched. He didn’t do much shading but mostly stayed on the eggs. Astrid was out of view for a while but then reappeared on the State Building at 4:56. She came to the crossperch at 6:00. Ares didn’t stir and so she took off again and went back to the State Building. At 6:41 she returned, and this time Ares was ready to go. He flew out and she settled on the clutch. The falcons were probably done for the night. Goodnight all.