Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Sunday, April 30th, 2023
It was rainy and overcast overnight. The temperature was in the high 40s. Not much changed during the course of the day. There was lots of rain and it was blustery. The temperature pretty much stayed in the high 40s. Astrid was on the eggs all night long as expected. Ares arrived at the nest at 5:09 AM. They did a quick changeover. We did not see where Astrid went afterwards. At 6:45 Astrid stopped at the crossperch and then hopped to the lip of the box. She ascertained quickly that Ares did not want to leave and she flew away. She returned at 7:10. That time she came all the way in. She used gentle persuasion to get Ares to leave. It worked like a charm, and he was out. At 9:53 Astrid started calling in the box. Obviously, she saw Ares somewhere in the canyon. He came to the box, and they switched. Ares settled onto the eggs and, once again, we were not sure where Astrid went. The next changeover occurred at noon. Ares quickly ceded the nest to Astrid and she took over incubation.
At 1:19 PM Ares came to the crossperch. Astrid made it clear that she did not want to leave the eggs. He hopped over to the west veranda and from there dove back into the canyon. Less than a minute later he was up on his favorite pillar perch. We noticed he was very wet and he proceeded to preen for a while. At 1:51 Ares came to the nest. This time it was his turn to use gentle persuasion. He beaked with Astrid and restrained himself from going behind her and stepping on her tail and wing tips. She declined to leave, and he didn’t press it. He went to an east ledge after that. At 3:07 we heard Ares giving long calls from somewhere not too distant. Astrid called back from the nest. He then came to the box and the pair did a quick switch. Astrid disappeared into the canyon and Ares got comfortable on the eggs. At 4:00 Astrid came to the east veranda. 30 minutes later she was in the box requesting a turn on the eggs. She started out being nice about it – beaking with him and such, but then she started stomping on his wingtip. After a minute or so he was out. He was up on his pillar at 4:45. At 5:52 Ares was back to the nest and impatiently asking for one last turn incubating. He stepped on Astrid’s tail and wingtips and she got up and left. Astrid came to the crossperch at 7:35, but Ares wasn’t stirring so she flew off again. She didn’t reappear until 7:52 and by then it was getting dark. Ares was quick to get off the eggs. She took over and was set for the night. Goodnight all.