Several inches of snow fell overnight, and the snow continued intermittently through the morning. It also became progressively windier as the day went on. Astrid arrived on the north face of the State Building at 4:45 AM. Ares screeched to the box fifteen minutes later. The snow was blowing sideways in the canyon when he arrived. By 6:00 he was giving long calls in the box. He then flew across the canyon and the pair mated on the State Building. He screeched back to the box at 6:28. He flew out again fifteen minutes later. We thought he was going to land on the lookout but instead he sailed above the roof of the State Building and then zoomed out of view. At 7:00 he was back to the box and calling again. By that time, snow and ice was covering one side of our PTZ camera and so we were blind to some of what was taking place around the nestbox. Astrid left the State Building at 7:41. At 8:30 he was vocalizing at the box as if he had her in view, but we couldn’t locate her with our cams. Ten minutes later he was calling again and becoming highly excited. It turned out that Astrid was buzzing by him – performing a flight display of sorts. It’s pretty incredible that he can still get so excited about the mate that he’s been with for a decade. At 9:08 Ares left the box screeching. Both falcons were out of sight for quite a while after that. Ares stopped by the box for a few minutes at 10:24. Once again, he behaved like he could see his mate, but we couldn’t locate her. He made another very brief visit at around `11:35.
The weather turned colder in the afternoon, dropping down to the mid 20’s. The wind was constant. We didn’t get another view of the falcons until 1:34 PM when both piled into the box near simultaneously. Ares had a gift for his mate, and she grabbed it from him at lightning speed. She took the meal over to the hotel to eat. She finished feeding at 1:41 and then went to the State Building. He came back to the nestbox and was calling at 2:26. By 3:00 he was gone again. At 3:22 it was her turn to come to the box and vocalize. He was back for his turn at 4:00. It almost seemed like they were guarding the box in shifts. They were finally at the box together at 4:13 and the pair conducted a ledge display. It lasted only a couple of minutes, but it was fairly intense. At 4:43 Ares came to the box with prey. Astrid came in and accepted it. As usual, she took it to the hotel. After a minute, Ares joined her over there – guarding her while she fed. At 4:52 she had finished her meal and she was gone. Ares stopped at the box 20 minutes later. He gave some excited calls, flew off, came back and did it again. We didn’t either of them again after that. It’s likely they were off to their night perches. Goodnight all.