Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Saturday, May 27th, 2023
In the overnight period the temperature dropped from an evening high of 70 degrees to a nippy low of 39 degrees. After daybreak the temperature rebounded again – ultimately rising to 78 degrees. Astrid was around the nest area for much of the night although not in the nestbox for long. Ares brought food to the nest at 12:50 AM. Astrid took it and did a feeding. He brought more to the east veranda at 2:20 AM. Astrid collected the mall prey item and fed it out to the nestlings. At 5:00 we could see that one of the parents was on the west face of the State Building. It may have been Ares drawing food from a pantry ledge because moments later he brought food to the nest. Astrid took it from him and conducted a feeding. At 5:12 when the feeding was over Astrid moved out onto the long perch. At 6:20 Astrid had moved onto the roof of the nestbox. No one should be in the offices today so theoretically she shouldn’t get provoked. At 7:35 Ares brought prey to the east veranda. Astrid got it from him and did a feeding. As for the nestlings, they were still staying huddled in the west back corner of the nestbox. That’s also where Astrid has been feeding them. Although we are not getting the best views of them we can tell that both Amelia and Niles are beginning to get their dark eye masks. Amelia’s mask is a little darker and better defined – or at least it was this morning. Astrid returned to the roof of the nestbox once the meal had been served out. At 8:46 A&A were guarding the nest box – he was on the crossperch and she was on the west veranda. By 9:30 Ares had left and Astrid was on the east veranda. At 9:50 AM Ares brought another meal to the nest area. Astrid took it and brought it into the box. The chicks were fed in their corner. At 11:16 Astrid was on the hotel sunning herself. She had flattened herself out like a blue Peregrine pancake. She was gone a few minutes later.
At 12:07 PM Astrid was on the steeple and Ares was on the State Building. Thirty minutes alter Ares came to the box and sat on the long perch for a while. Amelia and Niles moved out of their corner, walked across the back of the box and to the opposite corner. At 12:50 Ares hopped into the box and the two chicks walked back to their regular corner. Ares then tried to give them a variety of things he found on the floor of the box. Perhaps a few were edible scraps. At 1:00 the nestlings were sprawled out on the floor of the box like a couple of snow angels. At 2:04 Astrid arrived at the nest with food. She started by going into the corner and feeding Niles. Amelia was in the middle of the box at that time. She patiently watched her mother feeding her brother for a little while before crashing the party and demanding her share. At 2:42 Ares was on the State Building and Astrid was on the steeple. Fifteen minutes later Astrid flew to the box to do a chick check. Ares was giving a series of long calls from somewhere in the canyon and the nestlings were squealing. Some of the vocalizations of Peregrine nestlings sound decidedly gull-like. At 3:51 Astrid was up on one of the light poles on the roof of the bank building. She does this very infrequently. She also happened to be trying to bring up a pellet. She flew over to the State Building a few minutes later. At 4:14 Ares came to the nest. He spent some time throwing shade on the egg while the nestlings were in corner. Amelia walked over to them and begged to his face. They did some beaking. He was out shortly after that. Astrid was on the east veranda at 4:56. She appeared to be waiting for Ares to bring in supper. At 6:07 she abruptly darted off to the west. She must’ve heard Ares call as he flew in with prey. He was on the hotel plucking something. Astrid flew back to the crossperch in anticipation of an incoming meal. When it didn’t materialize, she flew over to the hotel and tried to get it from him. But he was too fast and flew over towards the State Building taking his prey with him. She landed on the State Building, but he left there as well and flew north – again toting his prey. Astrid flew to the box and then to the steeple. She didn’t seem very pleased. Meanwhile, in the nest Niles did some walking around in the box and even flapped his wings a couple of times. At 6:30 Ares came to the crossperch. He didn’t have the prey he had been processing earlier. Did he store it? Deep fry it and sell it? We didn’t know. At 6:59 Astrid flew into the box with food. It appeared to be a large hunk of a Pigeon. She must have caught it earlier. She then doled it out to the chicks. The meal was over ten minutes later and she left. She was back to the crossperch a little while later and Ares was on the State Building. The nestlings were both in the east corner of the box. Goodnight falcons.