Astrid spent another cold and snowy night on the eggs. Will winter ever end? Ares came to the nest at 5 AM to relieve her. It was quite a contrast from the day before when the first switch didn’t occur until after 9:30. We didn’t see Astrid again until 7:15 when she showed up on a State Building ledge. As usual he called when she landed there – helpfully letting us know. A quick switch happened at 7:43 and then Astrid was back on the eggs. Ares was next seen on a steeple perch at 10:53. Astrid called for him to come and take over, but he kept preening. They finally switched at 11:36 and Astrid got a chance to stretch her wings. She was seen flying around the west face of the State Building at 12:08. Right after that she landed on the steeple.
At 12:57, Astrid flew close to our PTZ camera before landing on the north face of the State Building. He made chirping calls as he watched her soar in. A minute later she made a quick check at the box and then went back to a steeple perch. At 1:56 PM Astrid came to the box and relieved Ares. He was out of camera view for a while after that. We noticed that Astrid seemed to be watching him or something else at 3:15. The next changing of the guard happened sometime before 4:00 and then Ares was on the nest. She was seen on a few different perches on the north face of the State Building through the late afternoon. The sun was hitting the inside of the nest box quite a bit in the afternoon, but temps remained in the low 40’s and the persistent wind made it seem colder. We haven’t seen the falcons have to shade the eggs from the sun once this season yet.
Astrid came back to the nest at 5:23 PM. It was the last switch of the day. Ares was seen on the north face of the State Building a few times until about 8:00 and then we assume he went to his night perch. Goodnight all.
