Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Monday, May 15th, 2023
It was cold overnight. The low temperature was in the mid 30s. The first half of the morning was on the cool side but then the temperature rose to near 70 by noon. Astrid spent most of the night on the nest. Ares came to the box with a small prey item at one minute before midnight. Astrid took it on the crossperch and did a feeding. For some reason Astrid abruptly left the nest at 3:44 AM. We are not sure what prompted that. She was gone until 3:47, so it wasn’t a prolonged absence. Certainly not long enough for the chicks or the egg to get too cold. At 5:10 Astrid left the box and Ares came in. She came right back and took over and he went to the steeple for a little while. At 6:36 Ares had prey on the hotel which he was plucking. It seemed to be something fairly large. At least it had a lot of feathers. At 6:48 he brought it to the nest box. Astrid took it on the crossperch and conducted a feeding. When the feeding was done at 7:02, Astrid went back to brooding. An hour later, Ares arrived on the east veranda with more prey. Astrid stayed brooding but the two adults were conversing. A couple of minutes later he brought his prize to the crossperch. Astrid took it and started a feeding. At 8:09 Astrid left with the leftovers. Ares came in to babysit but Astrid blasted in right behind him and took over. He went back to the steeple. At 10:32 Ares was giving chirping alarm calls from somewhere in the canyon. It sounded like he was dealing with a Peregrine intruder, but we could not confirm that. Two minutes later Astrid got up off the nest at hopped to the crossperch. She flew out into the Canyon. She was back to the nest only a minute later and resumed brooding.
At 11:11 AM Ares was on the steeple and from there he came to the box. He had prey. It was an adult male goldfinch. Astrid took it from him and proceeded to feed it to the nestlings. At 1:20 PM Astrid left the nest. Moments later Ares flew over and hopped into the box, but he didn’t get a chance to brood. Astrid quickly returned with prey. She began a feeding and he left. Twelve minutes later the meal was over and Astrid flew off with the leftovers. She came right back and resumed brooding. At 3:35 PM the pair switched, and Ares got a turn with the clutch. His turn only lasted 10 minutes, but then again that’s not bad for someone with a control freak as a partner. Astrid came right back and took over. At 4:30 Ares brought prey to the nest. Astrid came out and took it on the crossperch. She then proceeded to do another feeding. Interestingly this time she began feeding the smaller chick first. The larger one was vying but not very insistently. The pair did a very fast switch at 5:18. It had gotten quite warm inside the box with the sun hitting it at full strength and it seemed like she wanted a break. She went over to the State Building whilst Ares went about shading the nestlings and the egg. Astrid was back at 6:08. Ares left and she took over on the clutch. At 6:18 Ares was processing prey on the hotel. Two minutes later he brought it to the long perch. Astrid scrambled over the crossperch to take it and then conducted a feeding. She fed them until they were satiated, and then she polished off the leftovers. At 6:46 Astrid left the nest. We’re not sure where she went but the nestlings called very loudly while she was gone. She came back almost ten minutes later and resumed brooding.
Today marks day 35 of incubation for the 4th egg. If it does not hatch in the next day or two, it is unlikely to hatch at all. Astrid had been jostling it occasionally, which made us think that it was viable, but she seems to be doing that less frequently now. Still, we shall see what happens. Goodnight all.