Wednesday March 10, 2021
Wednesday had a cool start with temps just below the freezing point, but by midday the mercury surged to just over 60 degrees. It was the warmest day we’ve had in a few months and the wildlife was ready for it. Courtship behavior between Astrid and Ares has been going in high gear for two weeks. The usual ledge displays, flight displays, and food tributes have been observed and recorded. For the most part Ares has been bringing European Starlings to his mate, but that changed on Wednesday with two food gifts more emblematic of the season – an American Woodcock and a bat. Ares came to the box with a fresh Woodcock at 2:15 AM. This was the earliest he had shown up at the nest in some time. Astrid was nowhere to be seen at that hour and she didn’t respond to his beckoning calls. After a few minutes, he gave up and stored the plump sandpiper on a State Building ledge. At 5:38 Ares was back to the box with a diminished gift. This time Astrid met him on the crossperch and wasted no time scrambling over to accept it. With the meal gripped firmly in her talons she flew over to a high ledge on the hotel and began feeding. While she was working on her meal, Ares saw something that upset him – undoubtedly a raptor of some kind. He flew into the canyon giving cackle-type alarm calls. At 6:10 we located him again; he was on the lookout on the northwest corner of the State Building roof. That’s one of the spots the falcons go to when intruders are in the vicinity. At 6:24 AM, both falcons returned to the nest but there was no ledge display and Astrid was up again only a minute later. Ares left too and went back to his lookout perch. At 7 AM he was at the box again and Astrid was on a window ledge to the west. There was a fair amount of conversation between them which culminated in a failed mating attempt.
At 8:41, Ares tried to gift a bat (first one of the season) to Astrid, but she showed little interest in taking it. He soon gave up and brought it to the box. A minute later he tried again; he walked it over to her (now on the west veranda) and tried to compel her to eat it. When she still wouldn’t take it, he ripped off a piece and fed it to her like she was a nestling. After that he polished off the rest himself. An hour later she had moved over to the far corner of the west veranda and he was on the east veranda. For much of the day, the falcons were homebodies, sticking close to the box. They attempted to mate in the vicinity of the box at least 6 times – three times successfully. On several occasions, while on a ledge, Astrid called and gestured for Ares to mate. He responded by flying over but then she would shift her tail towards the building before he came down. This meant that he had to abort at the last moment. As expected, Ares seemed much more interested in luring Astrid into the box for a ledge display, while her focus was on trying to get him to mate. At 11:24, After doing a quick flyby of the nest, Astrid came into the box and the two falcons kind of danced. Actually, it was more like a standoff, with both falcons remaining on their own respective sides of the box. After five minutes he flew out and went to his favorite pillar perch to the east of the box.
At 12:30 PM, Ares was back in the box and doing some housecleaning. Primarily he was picking at stones and digging around. It was no secret that he was looking forward to having eggs to care for. Ten minute later he was out and on the lookout post. There must have been an intruder in the vicinity again. Sure enough, he started giving cackle-type alarm calls. It was probably a non-falcon intruder because he was back at the box moments later. At 1:50, he was heard giving chirping type alarm calls which usually indicates a Peregrine interloper. Once again, the falcons were not agitated for long and soon both were back at the nest area. At 3:15 the pair mated at the box. They repeated this at 4:30. Following that, Ares was on his pillar perch and Astrid went back to a window ledge west of the box. At 5:15, Ares was in the box, vocalizing and acting very excited. Astrid buzzed by him for a flight display. After that she was on the State Building. Ares tried to mate with her there but was unsuccessful and he returned to the nestbox. He was up on the lookout again only ten minutes later. She then did some swooping flights around the State Building. Was is for Ares’ benefit or was she checking his window ledge pantry for stored food? By 6:10, both had gone off to their night perches and we didn’t expect to see them until morning. However, well after dark, at 7:40 PM, Astrid returned to the box. She came in silently and didn’t stay for long. Goodnight falcons
Astrid in the nest