Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Sunday, March 26th, 2023
The overnight was cool with temperatures in the mid 30’s. The sky cleared during the morning and the high temperature in the afternoon was close to 50 degrees. A persistent wind made it seem colder but also gave falcons a good amount of flying assist. Astrid came to the nestbox at 3:34 AM. Ares showed up a less than a minute later. He hopped into the box with her but stayed for only a moment. At 5:31 he returned, and the pair did what appeared to be a practice incubation switch. He came in and she went out. At 6:20 Ares gave some long calls at the box and then glided off. At 6:40 he was back in the box and Astrid was on the crossperch. Moments later she was up again and then so was he. Both falcons were on the State Building at 7:47. For the next few hours they were up and down from the State Building and Ares was making occasional visits to the box. At 9:51 a ledge display was in progress at the box. He was out after several minutes and she stayed on to do some housework and some digging around Ares’ scrape. 10:23 Astrid was back on the State Building and Ares was in the box. Astrid was spending a lot of time on the State Building and was being fairly sedentary while Ares was going back and forth between the State Building and the box.
At 1:30 PM the pair performed another ledge display at the nestbox. Fifteen minutes later there was an aborted mating attempt on the State Building. Ares came to the box directly afterward. At 1:55 Astrid was in the box giving alarm calls. They were high pitched clipped notes which meant that there was a falcon intruder in the Canyon (non-falcon intruders typically warrant a cackle type alarm call). She was up after that and both falcons were out of view for at least 20 minutes. We imagined them escorting an interloper well out of their territory. At 2:26 Ares stopped back at the box but did not stay long. Astrid returned to the canyon and to the State Building at 2:39. There she remained for some time. Both falcons were out of view once more at 327. Astrid returned to the State Building ten minutes later and for the next couple of hours Astrid was mostly on the State Building and Ares was in and out of the nest box. There was one mating at 4:52. Likely there were more attempts, but we missed seeing them. Ares was at the box and Astrid was on the State Building until about 7:15. After that we presume they went to their night perches. Will Astrid return to the box tonight and do a sitting? Will she lay her first egg of the season? We shall see. Goodnight all.