Astrid spent the entire night at the box/on the eggs. Ares was first seen on the State Building at 5:15 AM. At about 6:00 he moved to another location on the same building and appeared to have prey with him. They switched ten minutes later – Ares did not bring food to the box at that time. Astrid remained out of view until nearly 8:00 when she showed up on the steeple. Her arrival there was heralded by Ares with squeaking calls. They switched again almost one hour later. Ares’ next turn on the eggs came at 10:30 AM. That time, Astrid didn’t want to leave, and he had to force her out – which, of course, she let him do.
Astrid was back on the steeple and preening at 10:50. At 1:10 PM Astrid was back to the box. She beaked with Ares to get him off the eggs. It worked like a charm. Ares was visible off and on through mid-afternoon. He was coming and going from the State Building quite a bit – likely making hunting forays. It was fairly windy by this point in the day – in other words, excellent flying weather for falcons. At 3:34, he brought prey to the box. It was the first time we had seen him do this in a while. It seemed he’d become content to let Astrid take things out of his pantry for herself. His deliveries had tapered off substantially since the cessation of egg laying. We wondered if he brought her food in order to compel her to get off the eggs and let him have a turn. Regardless, she took her meal to the hotel ledge and ate it there. Afterwards, we saw her on a steeple perch.
Astrid returned to the box at 5:00 PM, but Ares wasn’t ready to leave, so she granted him more time. She was back at 5:40 and that time they did switch. Ares went over to perch on the State Building. He was last seen there at about 7:30 PM. After which he was off to his night perch. Goodnight all.
