The overnight was cold and wet. Temperatures were in the high thirties and they didn’t change much through the course of the day. Light rain and snow squalls occurred intermittently through the day. Astrid was tight on the eggs all night and there we saw/heard no action. Ares showed up on the State Building at around 5:50 AM. He came to the box to take over incubation at a few minutes before 6:00. An hour later Ares was calling in reaction to Astrid moving from the State Building to the steeple. At 7:27 she came to the box and asked for a turn on the eggs. Ares relented quickly and ceded the nest to her. At 7:56 he was back to the box with a piece of prey. It wasn’t much but Astrid scrambled over the crossperch to get it. She then took it over to the hotel. It was snowing harder while she fed. By 8:05 she was done and had flown to the State Building. They did another quick changing of the guard at 8:46. Once again, Ares left without complaint. At 10:48 Ares was back to the nest. He pushed up behind Astrid trying to get her to leave the nest, but it didn’t work, and he didn’t seem to be trying that hard to shift her. He gave up after a few minutes and left. The next switch occurred at 12:31 PM, This time Ares took over from Astrid.
Another snowsquall struck in mid afternoon and the wind was blowing the snow sideways. Astrid was on the State Building for a while and then came to the crossperch at 3:08. When it was clear that Ares wasn’t ready to leave, she didn’t persist and flew back into the canyon. At 3:46 PM Astrid returned to the crossperch. This time an immature Peregrine was following right behind her! She gave a few donkey calls from the crossperch, but showed no inclination to chase after it herself. Ares saw it, got off the eggs, and gave loud chirping-type alarm calls. He flew out after the intruder just as Astrid got onto the eggs. We didn’t see it well enough on the cameras to tell if it was a male or female, but judging by the reaction of our pair, it must have been a male (therefore Ares’ problem). We didn’t see any sparring, but we assume that Ares escorted the intruder away. He didn’t return until 5:22. Astrid called out when she saw him land on the State Building. It seemed a little on the early side for Astrid to be set for the night and, as it happened, it was. Ares came to the box at 6:03 and they switched. Astrid went to the State Building as Ares adjusted himself on the eggs. At 6:27 Astrid was on the hotel plucking a Pigeon. Apparently, she caught something for dinner. It’s unlikely this meal came from Ares’ pantry since he almost never catches Pigeons. At 7:24 PM Astrid landed on the crossperch. Ares left and she got onto the eggs – this time for the night. Goodnight falcons.