Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Thursday, May 4th, 2023
It was chilly again overnight with some intermittent rain. The temperature was in the mid 40s. The day was warmer than it had been lately, ultimately breaching 50 degrees. There were breaks of sun and only a few stray showers. Astrid was on the eggs all night. Ares showed up on the State Building at 5:33 AM. When he left at 5:53 Astrid called out to him. It seemed like she wanted to be relieved. He finally came to the nest at 6:19, at which point they switched. Astrid flew over to the State Building as Ares climbed onto the eggs. The next changing of the guard occurred at 7:50. We are not sure where Ares went afterwards and we couldn’t locate him with our cameras. At 10:43 we heard Ares giving long calls from somewhere close. Astrid called back to him. We then noticed he was on the steeple. He came to the box at 11:07. He circumnavigated her in the nest but she was not interested in leaving. After a only a minute he pushed her off the eggs. She flew over to the State Building and he set about incubating. At 11:48 Astrid was on the hotel, but then she darted off at something a minute later.
At 12:17 PM we saw that Astrid had gone to the north face of the State Building. A minute later she came to the crossperch. It was clear that Ares did not want to leave and so she flew over to the steeple. At 1:14 Astrid returned to the nest. The pair beaked as Astrid tried to convince Ares to leave. It soon had the desired results and Astrid was able to take over on the eggs. At 3:46 we again couldn’t find Ares anywhere with our cameras. Five minutes later Astrid was vocalizing and that was an indication that Ares had returned to the fold. Indeed, he was on the State Building. At 4:17 he came to the nest and asked to have a turn on the eggs, but Astrid had no interest in leaving. He soon gave up and flew over to the State Building. At 5:52 Ares had been gone for a little while. Suddenly we heard high pitched alarm chirps from him. It was likely there was a Peregrine intruder in the Canyon. Astrid called back to him but stayed on the eggs. Ares landed on the State Building only moments after the excitement. At that time there was light rain falling in downtown. Ares left the State Building at 6:00 – likely on a hunting foray. He returned 30 minutes later but was soon gone again – probably for the night. By refusing Ares’ offer to take a shift in the early afternoon, Astrid earned herself an especially long turn on the eggs. Obviously, the hatch window is approaching and she loathes to leave the eggs when a hatch is imminent, but we are still days away from that possibility. Goodnight falcons.