Thursday, March 25th, 2021
Astrid Becomes More Sedentary – First Egg Could Come Tomorrow or Saturday
It was relatively warm overnight, with temps staying in the fifties. After dawn, temps rose quickly, and by noon it was close to 70 degrees. Astrid arrived at the nest box at 11:45 PM. She remained until 1:50 AM. At 2:56, A&A both piled into the box. She was calling as if he had food, but his talons were empty. He left right away – possibly to go rustle something up for her. At 3:45, he brought a Woodcock to the box. She took it on the crossperch and flew off to the hotel. It was dark and we could just see her silhouette feeding on something. At 5:39, Ares came to the nest with another Woodcock. He waited for her to come for about ten minutes before giving up and storing it. At 5:51, we noticed that Astrid was perched on the west face of the State Building. Ares came to the nestbox at 6:20. Ten minutes later, Astrid was at the box for a ledge display. Twenty-five minutes later Ares bailed out of the nest; Astrid remained and made a scrape. Deb noticed that Astrid seemed to be adopting her egg-laying stance. She typically does this several times before actually laying an egg, so we weren’t getting too excited.
At 7:00 AM, Ares was in the box and Astrid was on the steeple. They mated on the steeple 3 or four times before 9:00. He returned to the nest each time. At 9:08, Ares was in the box giving long calls. At 10:05, Astrid came to the box and he left. But then she was out again directly, and he came back. They were giving the monitors whiplash! Astrid showed up on the steeple at 10:34. We knew she had come into the fold because Ares was giving lively vocalizations. They mated on the steeple five minutes later. Ares was back and forth to the box several times in the subsequent hour. A few of those forays may have represented matings, but we couldn’t confirm that. At 11:25, Astrid made a dramatic return to the canyon, swooping by Ares, making a steep arch up to the high ledges of the State Building, not landing and then darting to the nestbox. Of course, then they were out of view until about 12:15, when both appeared near simultaneously at the nest area. After a five-minute dance, Ares was out, and Astrid stuck around to make scrapes and get some other house chores accomplished. At 1:02, A&A switched at the nest and then it was his turn on guard duty. Almost immediately upon taking over he was issuing a cackle-type alarm call. We had no idea what prompted his reaction. Ares darted out to deal with – whatever it was. At 1:43, we could hear the pair talking from somewhere in the canyon, but we couldn’t find them with the PTZ cams.
Ares returned to the box only a minute after leaving. He had a Woodcock in his talons. We think that he tried to interest Astrid in taking the bird prior to coming to the nest. Big surprise, she didn’t want it. At 2:10, the falcons mated on the lower steeple perch. He was at the box 15 minutes later. At 2:30, the pair was sharing a dance at the box. It lasted 5 minutes. At 2:47, she was calling in the box and he was responding from the State Building. Of course, we couldn’t clearly hear his part of the conversation. The pair danced again at 2:54. It was yet another five-minute display. During the dance, Deb noted that Astrid’s cloaca looked slightly open and that could mean that egg number one is only days away. At 4:25, we could hear a mating taking place. We noticed her on the lower steeple perch only minutes later. At 4:30, they were talking back and forth. Without seeing what was happening, we wondered if a food transfer had taken place. Likely not since she was still sitting on the lower steeple perch and had no food. At 7:04, Astrid came to the crossperch. Ares was in the box and the pair were having a discussion. Ares dove out and she remained in place for the remainder of the evening. Obviously, she’s getting ever closer to laying her first egg of the season. It could be tonight, it could be tomorrow, or perhaps Saturday. We will be watching and waiting. Goodnight all.
