The overnight was chilly with rain showers. The temperature was in the low forties and rose to only 47 degrees by midday. Rain was intermittent in the early morning but became more frequent by late morning. Rain was near constant in the afternoon and into the evening. Astrid spent the night on the eggs and there was no overnight action or drama. Ares screeched to his pillar perch at 5:20 AM. Fifteen minutes later he came to the box. Astrid got off the eggs, stretched her wings and flew into the canyon. It was a smooth switch and he quickly settled on the eggs. At 6:45 Astrid was on a pillar perch to the west of the nestbox. She moved to the crossperch a couple of minutes later and from there to the east veranda. At 7:20 she entered the box and negotiated with Ares to take over incubation. They did some beaking and he ceded the nest to her. He was back on his pillar a few minutes later. At 8:25 Ares was back to the box and he wanted to sit on the eggs again. When she didn’t get up right away, he walked around behind her and stepped on her tail feathers. That got her to leave pretty quickly and he got onto the eggs. After a few minutes we realized that he wasn’t covering all the eggs – and one was more against him than under him. At around 9:00 he shifted and started covering all four. There was probably no harm done. At 9:20 Astrid landed on the west veranda. The pair conversed but it seemed clear that Ares didn’t wasn’t to leave the box yet. She resisted the urge to oust him and hopped over to the east veranda instead. By 9:50 they amicably switched, and Astrid was back incubating the eggs.
At 10:45 AM Ares was on his pillar perch and Astrid was on the eggs. Both were taking naps. The next changing of the guard occurred at 11:30. It was a quick switch – Astrid got off and Ares got on. We weren’t sure where she flew to initially, but Ares was squeaking a lot like he was watching her fly. Perhaps he was perusing Ares’ food pantry on the west face of the State Building. By 12:04 PM She was on top of a pillar to the west of the nestbox. At 12:16 she flew to the nest. Ares was ready to switch this time and he gave her no argument. At 1:32 Ares was back to the nest. Astrid signaled that she didn’t want to leave, and he didn’t press her on it. He came back thirty minutes later, and this time he wasn’t taking no for an answer. He walked behind her, stepped on her tail, and wingtips, and pushed her until she got off the eggs. He made “tut tut tut’ calls – the very type of call that she used to use when pushing him off the nest. It seems like he learned that technique from the best! At 3:03 Astrid came to the east veranda. Five minutes later she was in the box negotiating a changeover with Ares. He didn’t want to leave the eggs. They did some beaking and she seemed to be full of patients. However, at one point – several minutes into the standoff, she got serious and began stepping on his tail. It took eight minutes, but she finally got him to leave. She climbed onto the eggs, and he went to his pillar perch. At 5:56 PM Ares came to the crossperch. Once again, when she didn’t leave right away, he walked around behind her and stepped on her tail to get her up. It worked and she surrendered the nest to him. Astrid was out of view until just before 7:00 when she appeared on the west veranda. Fifteen minutes later they surprised us by mating on the crossperch. It was their first mating of the day, and now that they likely have their complete clutch of eggs, mating will soon cease. At 7:14 Astrid got onto the eggs and was likely in place for the night. It had been a rainy day with very little action – no food exchanges, no intruder alerts, only one mating, and lots and lots of incubating. Goodnight falcons.