Overnight was cold with temps once again plunging into the twenties. After sunrise it gradually became warmer. By noon, temps were in the fifties; by late afternoon, the high 60’s. Astrid silently came to the nestbox at 2:20 AM. She stayed out on the long perch until Ares brought her a meal at 4:25. She took it from him and then flew to some unknown location to eat. Ares remained at the box for twenty minutes before flying off to do whatever a guy like him does in the predawn hour – probably hunt. Sure enough, at 5:13 AM, he was back at the nest with a fresh Woodcock. He stood on the long perch with it dangling below his talons for quite a while – Astrid failed to come to take it. He plucked at it off and on while he waited. At 6:43, he gave up. He flew off and stored the food in his pantry. A moment later he was back without it. Astrid then showed up immediately. She hopped into the box and the two falcons shared a long non-dancing ledge display. It was however, a very vocal one – at least on Astrid’s part. While she talked, he seemed to let his attention wander. He preened himself and then dug a scrape in the stone. For a few seconds it even looked like he was falling asleep – all while Astrid was lecturing. Seriously, when he made his scrape, it was almost as if he was showing Astrid where he wanted the eggs to be laid. Interestingly, it happened to be roughly the same place where Astrid had been making most of her scrapes, so there was a good chance that would be the spot. I recall a couple of years ago when Ares went all out on the west side of the box – making a giant divot. He worked on it every day. We joked about it being his swimming pool. In the end, Astrid laid her first egg well away from his pool site. Ares left the box at 7:10. The had been together in the box for twenty-five minutes. She hopped out onto the crossperch and he flew across the canyon to the State Building. At 7:46, Ares came to the box and Astrid moved out onto the east veranda. Following that, she went to a high perch on the State Building while Ares did some work at the nest. He made two scrapes in the stone.
At 8:12, Astrid was on the hotel ledge working on a meal. Did she pull it from Ares’ pantry? He was with her for a little while on the hotel ledge while she ate. At 8:26, Ares began chirping at the box. It was clear they had been dealing with an intruder. Astrid flew to the box and she was agitated. She excitedly called into the canyon and then sailed back into the fray. Ares was already pursuing something – presumably another male falcon. Ares came to the box at 8:26, and Astrid to the State Building a minute later. Both were at the box at 9:52 – she was on the crossperch. They mated a few minutes later. At 10:46, I heard Ares’ distinctive mating chatter call again, but we had no idea where they were. She was on the edge of the west veranda when they next mated a half hour later. At 11:47 AM, there was an aborted mating attempt on the west ledge. A successful mating happened on the west veranda at 12:07 PM. Astrid went to her steeple perch after that. At 12:51, Astrid came to the box and was calling. When Ares arrived 15 minutes later, she flew right off and landed on the steeple. He stayed in the box and gave a few long calls. At 1:20, both falcons were out of view. Ares returned after ten minutes, but didn’t stay long. At 2:00, the pair dramatically arrived at the nest. They were calling frantically like they do when a falcon intruder is present. Ares had prey but wasn’t handing it to Astrid who was facing him on the crossperch. The prey was a Horned Lark – the first one we had ever known Ares to catch. He took off with his quarry and Astrid soon followed. Both were soon out of camera view. Ares retuned to the box at 2:20. He was lightly chirping which meant that Astrid was in view. Sure enough, she landed on a west ledge less than a minute later. Ten minutes later she had either tucked into the ledge or flown – we couldn’t see her with the PTZ cam. Meanwhile, Ares was doing some housekeeping in the box. At 2:39, we noticed that he was shading. He had his wings slightly open and was casting shade on the floor of the box. This is something falcons do to protect their eggs/nestlings from becoming overheated. Obviously, there are no eggs. Was Ares practicing shading? At 3:05, he started calling. Perhaps the intruder was back. He left the box and his invisible eggs and flew out into the canyon.
At 3:30 PM, Ares was back and forth to the box a few times. He was excited about something – probably just the presence of his mate. Sure enough, she flew in and landed on the crossperch. She was up again only two minutes later and once again out of our view. Ares stayed in the box and started casting shade again. Astrid showed up on the steeple at 4:09. She was gone ten minutes later. Ares continued practice shading until 4:43, when he began giving a series of long screeching calls. Maybe he wanted Astrid to come and take a turn doing shading duty. At that point Astrid had moved to the hotel and was sitting in the sun. At 5:09, both falcons were out of view. He returned less than ten minutes later and resumed shading the invisible clutch. 5:54, Astrid came to the west veranda. She was asking to mate. That proved to grab his attention away from shading. A minute later they mated on the west veranda. When Ares returned to the box at 6:11, Astrid was particularly vocal. She asked him to mate again at 6:26, but he was back to shading and that seemed to be more important at that moment. At 6:44, he flew from the box. We thought that he’s double back to mate, but that didn’t happened. Apparently, it was bedtime. Astrid also went off to bed about forty-five minutes later. Goodnight all.