It was seasonably warm overnight with some showers and thunderstorms coming through. The skies cleared by morning and the temperature hit 60 degrees before noon. Ares arrived at the nestbox at 10:50 PM Friday night but stayed for only a few minutes. Both then came together to the box at 3:22 AM. She moved onto the east veranda, and he immediately hopped inside the box and disappeared into the shadows. When we checked later, we couldn’t even tell he was in there. But he was and he was sitting upright. If we didn’t know better, we would think that he was the one laying the eggs. She called to him a few times, but he just stayed still like he was waiting to have contractions. The rain began at 3:38. They began seriously conversing at 4:30 and suddenly both took flight. Moments later when they came back, Astrid moved onto the west veranda and he jumped into the box. He was giving squeak calls and she was delivering her famous donkey-like vocalizations. They finally mated on the west veranda in the rain at 4:47. At 5:17 Astrid was calling out to Ares, but we weren’t sure where he was. Thirty minutes later he arrived at the box with prey. It looked like most of a Woodcock, but it was hard to tell. He probably had taken it from one of his pantry ledges. Whatever it was she accepted it on the crossperch and then took it over to the hotel. We were able to follow her with the camera, but it was so dark where she came down on the ledge that we couldn’t tell if she was eating it or not. Finally, we made the determination that she was. Perhaps it wasn’t a Woodcock then. If it was, she probably wouldn’t be having it for breakfast. Meanwhile, Ares was giving long calls at the box.
Both falcons were back to the nest area and conversing at 6:06 AM. She was wiping her bill on the west veranda perch, and he was inside the box. At one point he came out on the crossperch and she leaned forward and adopted her mating stance. He jumped back into the box – because what he really wanted was a dance. They mated on the west veranda at 6:15. Five minutes later he brought prey to ledge west of the box, but it must have been quite small, and he didn’t offer it to Astrid. He flew off instead. She also flew but landed on an east ledge. At 6:48 three crows flew by the nest and she had no reaction. That surprised us, since she usually gets touchy about crows (or anything) moving to close to the nest. At 6:53 Ares arrived at the box with a freshly caught grackle. Astrid showed no interest in coming over to take it, so he began plucking it on the east veranda. They both went over to the State Building a few minutes later – Ares following her. He continued trying to get her to take his gift. He came back to the box with it and kept looking over in her direction and giving squeak calls. By 7:40 he was starting to eat it himself but was still holding out hope that she would take what was left. He tried to give it to her for hours. At 9:38, when she came to the crossperch and asked to mate, he offered her that same food. Finally, she jumped into the box and took it. His amazing perseverance (three hours!) ultimately paid off. She didn’t bring the food to the hotel, so it was possible that she stored it somewhere. Of course, that means we may see it again at some point. In other words he might pull it out and try to gift it to her again.
At 9:54 AM the falcons mated on the east veranda. He went into the box afterwards. Another mating occurred at 10:16 and then again an hour later. At 11:22 Ares was highly excited for some reason. Astrid moved from the veranda to an east ledge, which didn’t seem like the most exciting thing in the world, but then again, we are not Ares. At 12:12 they mated on the east veranda. Directly after that she came to the box calling. She proceeded to do some work in the box while still occasionally vocalizing. Ares came to the nest at 12:15 and joined his mate for a ledge display. They switched two times and did a fair amount of beaking during their dance which lasted about seven minutes. At the end Ares bailed out and Astrid did some serious digging in the gravel in the corner of the box. At 12:33 we noticed that Ares was on his pillar perch to the east of the box. Astrid moved over to the State Building at 12:47. He came back to the nestbox at 1:39 and gave a lot of long calls. At 2:16 PM both falcons were out of view. He came to the nest a minute later and she went to the State Building. They often travel as a package these days. At 2:34 they mated on the State Building. He was back to the box five minutes later. She joined him for a ledge display. It was a relatively short dance. He screeched in and out of the box a few times during the succeeding 30 minutes. There may have been a mating that we missed.
At 3:40 he came to the box with prey. He called, but Astrid didn’t come for it. He flew out and perhaps brought it to her or maybe he stored it. The latter scenario is more likely. What we know for sure is that when he came back to the box at 3:45 he didn’t have it anymore. At 4:00 it was clear that rain was coming. There was a line of thunderstorms passing through the region. Ares was calling from the box and Astrid was still on the State Building. At 4:22 she was on the crossperch, and she remained there for the brunt of the storm. Ares stayed inside the box. The rain and wind blurred our camera’s vision, but we could still see Astrid. They mated in the rain on the east veranda at 4:32. Ten minutes later, Ares was on the State Building and Astrid was at the box. At a few minutes before 5:00 the pair tried to mate again, but it was short and probably a failed attempt. At 5:45 Ares brought a small prey item to the nest. She went inside the box to take it and then flew off into the canyon. She didn’t take it to the hotel, and she was nowhere in camera view. At 6:00 she reappeared on the steeple. At 6:20 they tried to mate on the steeple. Ares flew in and it looked like his trajectory was right and she was in position, but something was wrong, and they had to abort. Both flew to the nest, and she went over to the west veranda. At 6:30 she was asking to mate again, and he was giving long calls in the box. Five minutes later it was raining again. Ares was standing on the lip of the box and seemingly wondering why she didn’t want to share a ledge display. A few minutes later they mated in the rain on the east veranda. He was on one of the steeple perches after that. They both were up and probably off to their night perches by around 7:30 PM. Goodnight all.