Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Saturday, April 29th, 2023
It was chilly overnight with a low temperature of 48 degrees. Rain fell intermittently through the night. Conditions did not improve throughout the day. Light rain was intermittent, and the temperature barely breached 50 degrees. Astrid was on the nest all night long. Ares came to the box at 4:30 AM and they switched. At 6:24 Astrid came to the crossperch but Ares showed no sign of getting off the clutch. She left instead. She was back 15 minutes later, and they did a quick switch. At 7:30 Ares screeched into the Canyon with prey. He brought it to the west veranda. Astrid met him there and presumably took the food (we didn’t see the transaction). Ares then came into the nest and settled on the eggs. At 8:06 Astrid was back to the box asking for a turn on the eggs, but Ares did not want to leave. After about 5 minutes of persuasion, he did consent to leave.
At 9:54 AM Ares returned to the box and the pair did a quick changeover. The next changing of the guard happened at 11:21 and then it was Astrid’s turn to incubate. Another changeover occurred at 12:41 PM and Ares came onto the eggs. Astrid got her next turn at 2:12. They switched again less than an hour later at 3:08. After leaving the nest Astrid flew over to the west side of the State Building as Ares settled onto the clutch. The next switch was that 4:0) – that time Astrid took over on the nest. At 5:21 Ares came into the box and got behind Astrid. He really wanted to take over on the eggs, but she would not leave. He left instead, only to return at 5:48 and that time acting was twice as pushy as the time before. He pried her off the nest and took over on the clutch. It was interesting that he would do this so late in the day. Astrid returned to the nest for the last switch of the day at 7:00 PM. Goodnight Falcons.