Update for Monday, May 6, 2024
Once again there were no overnight feedings, but the falcons more than made-up for any nutrition deficit by providing many meals during the course of the day. The afternoon got quite warm, close to 70°. Both Astrid and Ares switched on and off with chick shading duty. At one point Astrid was shading the nestlings with her body and shading the egg with her tail. They left the chicks alone three or four times in the afternoon, sometimes for as long as 15 minutes. This was the longest amount of time they’ve been alone since hatching. Ares did not spend as much time guarding the nest area, or at least he wasn’t visible to our cameras for much of the day. Still, he showed up at the nest fairly frequently to ask for a turn babysitting. He did fair amount of shading in the afternoon. At one point he seemed torn between shading the chicks and shading the egg which was all of 8 inches away. For a while he shaded the chicks and just looked at the egg. It was like he was trying to will it closer with telekinesis.
