The overnight period was cool and it never really warmed up. Temps stayed in the high 40’s for much of the day. Rain was falling by afternoon, and it went on through the evening. During the previous night, for the most part, Astrid stayed close to the nest – usually on the east veranda. Ares arrived at the box with prey at 4:18 AM. Astrid came over from the west veranda, took the food, and started the feeding. One of the chicks seemed especially grabby during the meal. At 5:48 Ares came back with more food. Astrid conducted the feeding. At 6:25 Ares was on the crossperch guarding the nest. As it happened there was a lot of nest guarding by both parents. Ares then moved to the east veranda. Astrid had been on the State Building, but then, at 6:49 we noticed that it was her on the east veranda. Somehow, they had changed places without us noticing. At 7:53 Ares was perching on a window ledge on the east face of the Adirondack Bank. Reportedly, he had been there for a while. At 8:39 Astrid was up on the roof of the nestbox. That meant she was obsessing about people in the office (or office monkeys) again. At 9:02 she came into the box to do a chick-check. That activated all three nestlings and they began squealing. At 9:33 Ares brought food to a west ledge. Astrid met him there, took the food and flew to the box to do the feeding.
At 10:51 PM Astrid called out as she landed on the box’s crossperch. Eight minutes later we heard Ares giving long calls from somewhere in the canyon. At that point, Astrid had been gone from the nest but was back. At 11:10 Ares screeched to the long perch. He remained on the lip of the nest box for a short time after that. At 12:06 Ares brought prey to a west ledge. Astrid flew over, retrieved the food, and flew to the box to do a feeding, which is exactly what happened during the previous feeding. At 2:17 Astrid was on her steeple perch and Ares was on guard duty on the east veranda. At 2:27 Astrid came into the nest with food. A fairly raucous feeding occurred that featured plenty of grabbing, squealing, and wing flapping. When the meal was over one of the large chicks was still biting at Astrid’s bill. At 4:04 PM the adult Peregrines were still guarding the nest from both verandas – her on west and him on east. It had been raining for a few hours by that point and we wondered if the falcons were going to be able to catch prey. The nestlings were sure to be hungry soon. Ares came to the crossperch for a chick-check at 5:27 and then Astrid did one only minutes later. Both parental visits were greeted with wild squealing of the kind that only baby falcons and barnyard pigs can do. Of course, the nestlings were getting legitimately hungry by that point. At 6:21 the parents had managed to catch prey and were both in the process of plucking and eating on one of the hotel ledges. At 6:22 Astrid came into the box with her catch and proceeded to do a 50 minute feeding which may have set a record for length. Ares had come back from the hotel and was perched on top one of the pillars. With that large meal the nestlings were good for the night. By 8:13 Ares was off his pillar perch, Astrid had come to the east veranda. That’s where she was intending to spend the night. Goodnight all
