Astrid was on guard for most of the night as expected. At 3:15 AM Ares arrived at the box with a small prey item. Astrid grabbed it and she took it into the nest. It was immediately stolen by Xena who pulled it back into the corner of the box. There she picked on it occasionally. Astrid came to the box to do a chick-check at 6:52. She didn’t have food with her, and the chicks signaled their disapproval by screeching and rushing her. At 7:03 AM Astrid was back in the box. She grabbed a wing that lay on the floor and fed it out to the nestlings. Both parents were briefly at the box together at 8 AM.
At 9:11 Astrid was on the State Building and Ares was perched on top a pillar above the nest. Since our PTZ 2 camera has been out, the only way to see a falcon perched on one of those pillars is to be downtown in person. Astrid wasn’t overly pleased about something – perhaps someone came too close to a window near the nestbox. She did a few chick-checks in short order and carried out some hazing of the bank’s windows. At noon Astrid was in the box feeding the chicks scraps of food that were already in the box. At 12:20 Astrid was back to the box, again without food. Both her and Ares were doing a lot of flying around the State Building. It seemed like they were doing flying demonstrations for the benefit of the nestlings and perhaps they were. She came back to the nest at 12:36, extracted a neglected hunk of prey and flew away with it. At a few minutes before 1 PM Astrid came to the box with fresh prey. Xena snatched it from her and took it to the corner.
At 1:22 we heard cackle calls being given by one of the parents. There was a person on the roof of the State Building and it wasn’t going over well with Astrid. She made swooping flight next to the building a few times and then came to the box to do a chick-check. She did another quick check in at 2:33 and that got the nestlings squealing. At 2:53 Ares brought prey to the west veranda, Astrid took it from him and then she did a feeding. It was the first orderly and proper feeding that day. Zeus appeared particularly aggressive during the meal. At 4:25 Ares visited the nest box and that prompted another nestling screech fest. Zeus showed off by footing an old piece of food in the corner of the box. He also spread out his wings. At 4:45 the chicks were flapping a lot in the box. their white downy feathers were shedding fast and floating out into the canyon like dandelion seeds.
At 6:42 there was more distant cackling heard in the canyon. One of the adults was irritated by something or someone. Soon both adults were in view again – him on the State Building and her on the steeple. Food was delivered at the box at 7:09. Astrid had a tug-o-war with Zena. Initially mom had the upper hand, but ultimately Zena wrestled it away and took it to the corner. Astrid scolded her with donkey calls, but there was no repenting. At the same time Zeus was screeching at his mom to get him food. It was pandemonium in the box! At just before 8 PM, Ares was on the State Building and Astrid was on the steeple. She came over to the long prech at 9:11. Ares was out of view by then. Goodnight all.
