It was another remarkable warm day for May with temps getting into the 80’s by late morning and close to ninety by midafternoon. Astrid was not guarding the nest all night. In fact, she took at least one extended leave of absence. At 3:20 AM Ares came to the nest with a small prey item. Astrid wasn’t there – she was over on the hotel watching for prey. After waiting quite a while for his mate to show up, Ares hopped into the box and started feeding the nestlings on his own. As it happened, he was feeding mostly one of the big nestlings, but he was doing it successfully. He stopped short from feeding out the entire meal. Instead, he went back onto the crossperch and resumed waiting for Astrid. That was the first time this season that Ares had even tried to feed the chicks. Astrid came in at 4:05, blasted past Ares, and went right into conducting a feeding. She had leftovers in her talons. As for Ares, he flew off to store what was left of the food he was doling out. At 5:12 he came back with either the same food or something similar. Astrid took it quickly and fed it out to the young. At 5:27 Astrid again flew in with more food. It was a bigger hunk this time, and she proceeded to serve it out to the chicks. At 6:19 Astrid was feeding on something on the hotel. It looked to be a Pigeon. At 6:26 she was up but she didn’t come to the box. We think she probably stored the food instead. Ares delivered food to Astrid at the nest at 7:15. She took it and started a feeding.
At 7:30 we heard one of the chicks give its rendition of the cackle call. It could be termed a proto-cackle call. As it happened it foreshadowed their mother’s reaction to people entering their offices. Soon Astrid was hazing the upper floor windows of the bank building. By 8:00 she was up on the roof of the nest box giving a dirty look to the building. Meanwhile, Ares assumed his guard position on the east veranda. At 10:42 Ares brought prey to a ledge west of the nestbox. Astrid gave a few of her famous donkey calls and flew over to take the prey. Once she had the food, we expected her to bring it to the nest, but instead she flew away to store it. She went to her steeple perch after that. At 11:19 Ares was cackling while on the long perch and Astrid was back up on the box’s roof. She did a chick check in the box at 12:37 PM. The nestlings squealed as she inspected them. At 12:50, it was Ares’ turn to do a fast check-in with the nestlings. He hadn’t yet finished with his inspection when Astrid arrived. She brought leftovers from a Pigeon meal and she started feeding the nestlings. During the feeding two chicks tried to grab the same piece of meat. A tug-of-war ensued which was something new for these little guys. At 1:31 Astrid was up on the roof of the box, which meant she was once again upset with movement inside the building. Ares screeched over to the box at 1:36, He picked up some food scraps and flew off with it. He did the same thing again a few minutes later. At 1:45 he was back in the box with the chicks. They were boisterous and giving squabbily chatter calls into his face. He talked back to them with squeak calls. He then did some shading even though they weren’t in the sun yet.
At 2:46 Astrid was in the box with the nestlings and she was shading them. The temperature was close to 90 degrees. She was trying to keep the chicks together, but it was a difficult task – one or two always wandering away. At 3:20 Ares came to the nest with a fairly large prey item. Astrid grabbed it from him and began a feeding. She was finished serving at 3:33 and flew out into the canyon. Ares arrived less than a minute later and started feeding out a scrap of food from the floor of the box. That’s correct, Ares was feeding the chicks for a second time in one day! He left the box briefly at 3:37, but then was right back and feeding them from another food scrap. There was no doubt about it, the three chicks were very full, and their crops were bulging. At 3:38, Astrid came to the crossperch, called a couple of times and Ares was out. She then dedicated herself to seriously shading the chicks; they were going to partake of it whether they liked it or not. Repeatedly, she rounded them up against the back wall and made herself a parasol. The chicks squabbled and complained but for the most part they cooperated. At 5:46 PM Ares came to the box with prey, but Astrid sent him away. At 6:09 he brought food again – this time she accepted it and did a feeding. She left the box at 6:14 and she was next seen on her steeple perch. She remained there until 6:46 when she came to long perch. Ares was on the State Building at that point. Astrid seemed set for the night, but it’s always hard to tell with these guys. Goodnight falcons.
