The overnight period was rainy and cool. Temps were in the mid 40’s in the early morning and rose to 60 degrees by late morning. Rain returned in the afternoon and cooler temps prevailed. Astrid was on the nest all night. We got a peek at the eggs at 5:15 when Ares came to the nest to switch and saw no pips. After leaving the nest Astrid landed on the west face of the State Building. She was only there for about five minutes. The next changing of the guard took place at 6:38 and Astrid resumed sitting on the eggs. She got up do some housework in the box at 7:17. At that time Deb inspected the eggs for pips and saw none. At 8:03 AM Ares brought food to the nest. Astrid took it from and flew over to the hotel to eat it. Fifteen minutes later when she was done, she went to her steeple perch. There she did some preening.
At 8:54 AM the falcons switched again and then Ares took over on the nest. At 11:48 another changeover took place and Astrid was back on the eggs. By 12:30 PM it was raining in the canyon and the falcons’ activity levels were dampened. At 2:28 Ares screeched over to a steeple perch. Astrid got quite excited when she saw him and began vocalizing. They switched fifteen minutes later and when they did, Deb got another chance to check for pips. She could detect none. Astrid went to the State Building after leaving the nest. She was there until the next switch which took place at 5:03 PM. This turned out to be the final changover for the day. Ares was on the State Building until about 6:30 and then, presumably, he either went hunting or to his night perch. Will we have our first hatch of the season on Monday? We shall see. Goodnight falcons.
