Overnight conditions were relatively mild with temps in the fifties. The temperature raised rapidly through the morning and surpassed 80 degrees in the afternoon. Astrid was on the nest all night. Ares screeched over to the box at 6:05 AM. They did a quick switch. Astrid flew around the State Building (mostly the west face) checking Ares’ pantry ledges for some breakfast. She perched for a while on the west face and then on the north face between checks. Ares gave squeaking calls as he watched her fly. At 6:23, she was checking out more ledges. She finally found something on a west ledge and took it to the hotel. It seemed sizable and may have been a Woodcock. She fed on it for a little while, but seemed less than enthusiastic about the meal (She still doesn’t prefer Woodcock). At 6:56, she went to her steeple perch. The falcons switched at the nest at around 7:30, and then Astrid was on the eggs. At 8:06, Ares was on the hotel feeding on something.
At 9:10, I heard Ares screech from somewhere in the canyon. He landed on the north face of the State Building shortly after. There was a quick changing of the guard at 9:49. Astrid was then out of view for a couple of hours. At 11:46, Ares was issuing alarm chirp calls which meant a falcon intruder was in the canyon. He was out in a flash and presumably chasing down the unseen (by us) interloper. Astrid kept looking up from her place on the nest, indicating that the fight was taking place in the airspace above the canyon. Astrid was calling out periodically as if she was reacting to the sparring match – every dive, every blow. At 12:05 PM, I saw soaring Ares high above the State Building. We assumed he successfully chased of the intruder. He did a few victory laps around the canyon before dipping low and making a long swoop up to a perch on the State Building. Astrid called out as he came in for a landing. At 1:15, we thought that perhaps something else was going on in the canyon. Astrid started vocalizing again. Ares then screeched to a landing on the steeple. It was an easy flying day for raptors and likely there were some migrant raptors passing through downtown and periodically upsetting the falcons. At 1:28 PM, a Turkey Vulture passed through and was chastised by both our falcons. Astrid started cackle-calling from the nest and Ares scrambled. He gave his own cackle call as he flew over to escort the vulture away from downtown. After Ares a brief police action, he flew back to his steeple perch. It seemed like the vulture was set on speeding out of the area following altercation, but as soon as Ares was out of site, the vulture returned to downtown and flew quite low just south of the County Building. The falcons didn’t seem to react to this.
At 2:22 PM, Ares was heard screeching from somewhere in the canyon. Following that, he came to the nest and the falcons switched. Astrid took advantage of the freedom and disappeared from our view for a while. Ares called out from the box when Astrid finally reappeared on his radar. She moved to the lower steeple at 4:20. At 5:06, she landed on the crossperch. She eventually hopped into the box, went behind him, and threatened to pry him off the eggs. He wasn’t budging and he made known. She decided not to oust him and let him stay on the eggs a little longer. The last switch of the day happened at 6:29 AM. He flew to the to the steeple for a little while, and then was up again by 7:03. Meanwhile, Astrid seemed like she was set for the night. Goodnight all.
