Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Sunday, March 5th, 2023
It was cool overnight. The temperature stayed just below the freezing mark and a light snow/rain mix fell off and on throughout the day. The day’s high temperature was in the low 40s. Ares came to the box at 4:37 AM. Astrid arrived on the west veranda a couple of minutes later. Ares spent some time making squeaking calls inside the box and trying to convince Astrid to come inside for a dance. At 5:02 she hopped into the box and the pair performed a very static ledge display around Ares’ super scrape. At 6:39 Ares brought a food gift to Astrid. She took it on the east veranda and flew over to the hotel, which is something we haven’t seen her do in a while. Indeed, it seemed like she had been avoiding the hotel for a while. As it happened her gift from Ares was a small one and it didn’t take very long for her to finish it. Ares screeched back to the box at 7:39. At 9:33 we finally saw Astrid again. She was on the south facing steeple perch. Five minutes later, we heard Ares screeching. Perhaps there was a mating attempt, but we did not see it. At 10:14 he came back to the box.
At 11:16 AM the Falcons had their second dance for the day. After it was over, and Ares left, Astrid spent some time digging in the stones behind Ares’ scrape. At noon she was out on the long perch, and he was on the State Building. It had started to half rain/half snow at that point. At 12:05 both Falcons were up. Ares returned to the box and seemed very excited. Astrid landed on the steeple again but was only there briefly. At 1:56 Ares screeched to the box with prey. However, he took off again right before Astrid arrived to collect it. She called out a few times, but he didn’t return with her gift. He had flown over to the hotel, but he didn’t have the prey any longer. We think he probably stored it. At 2 o’clock he went over and perched on the north face of the State Building. Astrid flew over and buzzed by him. She then circled the building a couple of times. Ares returned to the nest box and was clearly excited. Astrid then proceeded to buzz by him at the nest box. Perhaps it was a flight display. At 2:25 she was on the State Building, and he was at the box. At 4:05 Astrid came to the next once more. At 4:55 Both falcons were on the upper ledge at the hotel. They were up five minutes later and then Ares stopped at the box. By 5:10 he was gone and probably off to his night perch. Goodnight falcons.