Astrid guarded the nest and young for most of the night. Ares remained out of view until coming to the nest at a little after 2:00 AM. It was pretty dark in the box at that point, but it looked like he may have been trying to feed one of the nestlings scraps from the floor. He went out onto the crossperch after a couple of minutes. At 3:17 he came back to the box – this time with a small prey item. Astrid came immediately, snatched the food from him and fed the chicks. At 5:32 Astrid was feeding the chicks again, but it looked like another small meal. She was done doling it out in only a few minutes. She moved to the west veranda after the feeding. At 6:26 we noticed that Ares was on the hotel. He was perched on the southwest corner of the upper ledge. His backdrop on that corner is the Utica Marsh – the place where we presume, he does a lot of his hunting. As the crow flies (or in this case, the falcon flies) it’s about a mile away and well within Astrid and Ares’ territory. At 7:09 Ares brought something very small to the nest. Astrid came over from the veranda, took the food and served it to the chicks. It disappeared quickly. At 7:58 both parents were on the east veranda. That doesn’t happen often. Obviously, they were both closely guarding the nest. They were together on the east veranda again at 8:45. Five minutes later, Ares came to the nest with what appeared to be another Least Bittern (he caught one only the day before). He seemed to be aiming to feed it to the nestlings, but then changed his mind and left with it.
Astrid was in the box feeding the chicks at 9:27. The meal was done about ten minutes later. The two nestlings were alone inside the box for much of the day, although one or both parents were almost always close by. Their masks were darker today and they showed more feather development in their wings and tail. Both did more wing flapping and they were also steadier on their feet than they were the day before. By 10:30 Astrid was becoming irritated with people in offices near the nestbox. She was keeping a close watch on office windows as she moved back and forth between the verandas and the roof of the nestbox. At 11:15 one of the chicks practiced giving a cackle alarm call. We first thought it was Astrid – it was that convincing! At 12:46 Ares screeched to the nest. The nestlings started squealing, but Ares had no food to give them. Both parents converged at the box at 1:09, but once again, they had no food in tow. About a half-hour later, Astrid was seen chasing a pigeon but didn’t secure it and she landed on a State Building ledge. At 2:13 she brought food to the nest and fed the chicks. They both had full crops by the time the meal was over at 2:26. Later in the afternoon, Astrid became perturbed about people in offices again. At 4:20 she was back up on the roof of the box.
At 6:41 Astrid was at the box calling and stirring up the nestlings. Ares had been on guard duty on the east veranda for quite some time, but had recently flown off into the canyon. Astrid left and then was back with food (probably acquired from Ares) only minutes later. She started to feed the smaller chick that was against the wall on the west side of the box. While the meal was underway, the larger chick ambled over from the opposite wall of the box and joined the chow line. By 8:36 Astrid was on the west veranda. The chicks were done squealing and squirming and had settled down together in a corner of the box. We thought the action was done for the night and then at 10:56 PM, Ares came to the nest with a live songbird! Astrid scrambled over and grabbed it. She was surprised about the live meal but she just took in her talons and called out. She brought the flapping prey into the nest and prepared to feed it out, but the bird surprised all by struggling free and flying out into the canyon. Poor bird!! It was pandemonium in the box, the chicks were squealing like crazy. Only a few minutes later all was calm, and it was as if nothing had happened. We thought that would be it for the night, but then at about 11:40 PM, Ares was back with prey (this time dead prey). Astrid took it and carried out a standard feeding. Goodnight falcons.
