It was another chilly night in the canyon with temps dipping down easily below the freezing mark. Like the day before, the mercury rose dramatically during the course of the morning, reaching 70 degrees by midafternoon. The falcons were active in the overnight period. Astrid came to the box at 12:52. Ares brought her a songbird (we saw only the silhouette) at 3:47 AM. He came right into the nestbox to give it to her, so she didn’t have to scramble to take it. Where she went with it, we couldn’t see. Just before 5:00, Ares flew to the nest with a Woodcock. He waited quite a while on the long perch for Astrid to come for it, but she didn’t. He plucked it and occasionally nibbled on it while he waited. At 6:05, he gave up and flew off. He stored it on one of his pantry ledges and then dashed directly back to the nest. At 6:11, Astrid came to the long perch and then hopped over to the west veranda. She asked to mate a couple of times, but Ares wasn’t responding. Finally, at 6:32, they mated. The did it again at 6:57. At 7:19, the pair were together in the box performing a ledge display. After it was over, Ares flew into the canyon and took a perch on the State Building. At 8:07, Ares was in the box and Astrid was over on the hotel. He made a few scrapes in the gravel and then started giving long screeching calls. Ten minutes later she flew over to the west veranda and requested a mating. After a short delay, Ares complied. At 8:35, Ares returned with a food gift. She accepted it and flew to the hotel.
At 9:04 AM, Astrid returned to the west veranda, but the sight of someone in a nearby office window compelled her to leave again. A half hour later Ares was doing housework in the nestbox. Astrid landed on a west ledge sometime after that. There was an aborted mating attempt at 10:04. Ten minutes later a successful mating took place on the steeple; and yet another at 10:52. At 11:00, Astrid was asking to mate again. Ares was busy digging in the corner of the box, but he did get around to mating almost ten minutes later. At 11:46, Ares was giving long screeching calls from the nestbox. He flew out into the canyon, then back, and then out again in rapid succession. At 12:34 PM, we caught glimpses of the local Rock Pigeon flock swirling and careening through the canyon. Astrid’s head swiveled around as she watched their ariel contortions from her steeple perch. Ares then shot through the flock like a supersonic arrow, arching back up and gracefully setting down on the nest. He gave a few long calls from the crossperch and then, at 12:46, he dashed off to the west. He then doubled back and mated with Astrid on her steeple perch. At 1 PM, Astrid came to the box and was calling for her mate. Ares came right away and the two shared a ledge display – albeit one that only lasted a few minutes. Once Ares was out, Astrid did some housekeeping chores; things like biting the lip of the box (very important). At 1:18, she flew over to the State Building and took a high perch. Ares seamlessly took over guard duty at the nest – flying right over as she vacated. It was as seamless as a routine incubation changeover. Inside the nest it was Ares’ turn to do some housekeeping chores. He puttered around a bit and then made a scrape.
At 2:50 PM, Ares came to the box. The pair had been out of our view for almost a half hour. She showed up on the State Building about fifteen minutes later. After giving some very loud, long calls, Ares began shading in the nest again. He was doing this yesterday afternoon as well – producing shade for nonexistent eggs. He kept at it until about 4:44, and then he was up. A&A were both out of view for a while after that. We heard Ares’ occasional screeching long-calls in the canyon but we didn’t know where he was. He came to the box again at 6:08 PM. Astrid was on the west veranda and the two were having a conversation. She then hopped onto the crossperch and requested a mating. At 6:25 they mated – and they mated again at 6:47. At 7:00, she was asking to mate once more, but Ares didn’t comply that time. She jumped into the box and he dove out. Astrid did some more tasks around the nest – mostly digging in corners and making scrapes. At 7:30 PM, she abruptly flew off. Both were off to their night perches. Last year Astrid laid her first egg on March 23rd. It was the earliest egg date we have ever recorded at the Utica nest. We don’t expect Astrid to lay an egg tomorrow, but we will be monitoring, Goodnight all.