Relatively Quiet Day in Falcon Town

Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Thursday, March 2^nd, 2023

The overnight temperature remained close to the freezing point. The morning was overcast with high temperatures of 37°. Light rain came in the afternoon. The wind also picked up and was that was especially evident in the downtown canyon. Ares arrived at the box at 5:15 AM. Astrid came to the crossperch a few minutes later but did not stay for long. Ares flew out at 5:37. A half hour later he was on the State Building. At 6:40 Ares returned to the box and seemed to be quite excited. Astrid came to the crossperch 10 minutes later and the two did some conversing. They mated on the west veranda at 6:57. At around 7:15, Ares brought a food gift to the box. Astrid took it and flew off. He was on the long perch for a while after that and then he hopped into the box to work on his super scrape. At 9:09 both Falcons were out of view.  Ten minutes later, both falcons showed up on the State Building. There they remained, and were quite inactive for the next few hours. Just before noon it had started to rain. The wind was also becoming more intense. Once again the canyon transformed into a wind tunnel.  At 11:50 one of the falcons did some high speed aerial acrobatics on the wind.

At 12:32 PM Ares came to the box. He was wiping his bill a lot which meant that either he just ate or he gave Astrid another food gift. Of course, the two actions are not mutually exclusive. At 12:46. He was excitedly calling inside the box. Astrid came to the crossperch a few minutes later. Astrid opened her wings and floated off like a balloon in the wind. She came back less than a minute later. Neither bird stayed at the box for very long and by 1:12 both returned to high perches on the State Building. At 2:30 Ares came to the box. From there he went over to a west ledge, where apparently, he had some prey stored. He processed it for a little while and then brought it to Astrid on the State Building. Talk about service! She ate it on her ledge, while he guarded her from the next ledge over. At 2:47 Ares was back to the nestbox and giving chirping calls. We are not sure what that was about. By 3:15 he had returned to the State Building with Astrid. They were both there together for a while and then Astrid left, perhaps to retire early to her night perch. Ares came over to the box once more. By 4:36 he was up again, and likely off to his own night perch. Goodnight Falcons.