Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Saturday, February 25th, 2023
It was very cold in the early morning hours, only in the single digits. Light snow started falling early and continued intermittently through the day. The temperature eventually reached 20° by early afternoon. Ares came to the nest box at 6:20 AM. Astrid arrived on an east ledge 15 minutes later, and that caused Ares to vocalize inside the box. At 7:00 we noticed that he was working on his super scrape – moving stones around. Moments later Ares darted out of the box only to come right back with food. He brought it to Astrid on her ledge. She fed on it for only a few minutes and then flew off with it, perhaps to store it. He launched as well, but then was back at the box a few minutes later. At 10:30 AM Ares was still at the box, it is possible that he had flown off on some forays, but if he did, they were short ones. Certainly every time we checked, he was in there. Astrid reappeared on an east ledge at 10:35.
At 11:25 AM there was an aborted mating attempt on the east ledge. Astrid had tucked in on the ledge just as Ares was making his approach, and he was forced to veer off. He boomeranged back to the box, only to leave when Astrid abruptly took off. At 11:35 Ares returned to the box, went inside, and ingested a few small stones. A few minutes later, he walked over to the West Veranda. At 12:30 PM Astrid was back to her east ledge and Ares had transferred to his pillar perch. It was still snowing in the downtown area and that would continue far into the night. Astrid came to the crossperch at 1:11 PM. Five minutes later Ares brought food to the box. Astrid accepted it on the west veranda. She flew off with it and, once more, we couldn’t find where she flew off to. At 1:25 Ares was calling like he saw Astrid fly through, but we didn’t see her, and he didn’t leave the nest. At 2:39 Astrid came back to her east ledge, which appeared to be her guard position for the day. They remained in these positions until just after 5:00 Pm when Astrid joined Ares in the box for a ledge display. It was a lively affair with lots of beaking. He left after a few minutes. She stayed in the box until 5:15. At that time she nodded her head a few times and then flew over to the east face of the State Building where no doubt she tucked in on a ledge that was out of the wind and snow. We presumed that Ares did something similar, but then he showed up on his pillar perch at 5:28. He stayed for about a half hour and then he too went to his night perch. Goodnight to all.