Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Thursday, April 13th, 2023
It was warm overnight With the temperature of 53 degrees. The skies were mostly clear through the day. The temperature rose rapidly and reached 80 degrees by midday. Astrid stayed on the eggs all night long. Ares showed up on the State Office Building at around 6:00 AM. He came to the box for a quick switch five minutes later. We were not sure where Astrid went when she left the box. It is likely she withdrew some food from one of Ares’ pantry ledges and went somewhere to have breakfast. She showed up on the State Building at 6:33. At around 7:08 one of the falcons gave alarm calls. We don’t know what that was about. Astrid came to the box two minutes later and they did a quick switch. At 7:32 Ares was up on the lookout post. He was up again 10 minutes later. At 8:10 Ares brought prey to the nest. Astrid took it from him on the crossperch and flew off with it. He got onto the eggs a minute later. At 8:34 Aries began giving chirp type alarm calls. Obviously, there was a Peregrine intruder in the canyon but we could not find it with our cameras nor did we know where Astrid was. Ares came off the eggs and a few minutes later he left the box. Astrid was back to the nest and on the eggs before a minute passed. At 8:41 Ares was back up on his lookout post. He was seen darting out after something at 8:58.
At 10:28 AM Ares came to the nest and asked for a turn on the eggs. Astrid left without complaint as he climbed onto the eggs. Astrid initially went to the State Building but then, 20 minutes later, she was on the hotel sunning herself on a ledge. She was up at 11:13. She then spent some time on one of the lower steeple perches. Some men were up on the roof of the bank building but Astrid did not seem to be concerned about them which surprised us. She won’t be so tolerant once there are hatchlings in the nest. At 12:51 PM Astrid left the steeple and went to the State Building. She came to the nestbox at 1:49. Ares didn’t take much persuading to leave. Astrid was taking over on the eggs in time for the hottest part of the day. The temperature was well over 80 degrees. She did some shading, she also moved the clutch over a few inches towards the west wall of the box. When it got really hot she did some panting. Usually, in past years Astrid would let Ares take the hot shift. Not this time. At 5:03 Ares came to the crossperch but Astrid didn’t want to leave. He flew away again and she continued her shift. Almost an hour later, at 5:53 he was back to the crossperch. This time he came into the box and went behind Astrid. She got up off the eggs and flew out of the box. We are not sure where she went after that. Perhaps to a puddle somewhere. Meanwhile Ares took over on the clutch. During his turn he did a lot of shading. At 6:52 he began issuing warning chirps and then abruptly came off the eggs. Astrid had only just returned to the State Building. There must have been an intruder – probably a male judging by his strong reaction and Astrid’s apparent non-reaction. Ares flew over to the lookout post and then he darted off – perhaps in pursuit of the intruder. Astrid came to the box a few minutes later and got onto the eggs. Likely she was set for the night. That was probably it for action in falcon town – until tomorrow, of course. Goodnight all.