Utica Peregrine Falcons Update for Tuesday, May 30th, 2023
It was mild and relatively warm overnight with temperatures in the mid 50s. During the day, once again the temperature rose significantly. By midday it was close to 80 degrees. By late afternoon it was 86 degrees. There was more action that happened after I published my post last night so I will take begin there. At 8 38 PM Astrid was plucking a Pigeon on the hotel. Ten minutes later she arrived at the nest and started a feeding. Only a few minutes into it she abruptly stopped the meal and flew out with the leftovers. The nestlings were not that interested in a late supper. Both parents were on the State Building for a while after that. At some point Astrid moved to the box area. At 12:33 AM Ares brought something small to the nest. Astrid took it and did a feeding. He brought something a little larger at 2:12 AM. Once again, Astrid took it and did the feeding. At 3:36 another meal came via Ares. Predictably, Astrid did the feeding. Ares brought still more food at 4:01. This he brought into the nest box. Astrid took it and fed the nestlings. Afterwards she was on the crossperch. At 5:03 Ares was visible on the west face of the State Building: At 5:36 he brought food to the east veranda. Astrid took it and fed the chicks. Amelia was the first one in the chow line. By 5:43 the meal was over and Astrid had flown out. Niles then did a few stretches and some wing flaps. He was also seen pecking at the egg. At 6:20 Astrid and Ares where together on the east veranda. Astrid then hopped up onto the roof of the nest box. She was anticipating people arriving in the office and, this not being a weekend or a holiday, it seemed like there was a fair chance she was going to see some office monkeys. At 9:58 Ares brought more food. Astrid handled the feeding. It was an exceptionally quick meal. At 10:42 Aries came to the nest with more prey. Again, it was something small. Astrid did the feeding. At 10:48 Ares was heard giving long calls. The nestlings were calling too and, simultaneously, sirens from emergency vehicles were blaring. No doubt if there were wolves in downtown Utica they would have been howling as well.
At noon Astrid was again on the roof of the nestbox. Thirty minutes later Ares came to the long perch to do a chick check. He then hopped on to the west veranda. At 12:44 PM a cackle type alarm calls sounded. We weren’t sure what was going on. We think Astrid gave the alarm and then one of the nestlings copied her. A few minutes later Ares was on the State Building and Astrid was on the steeple. Ares came to the crossperch at 12:58. Astrid arrived and displaced him two minutes later. At 1:00 a cackle alarm calls again sounded. Astrid moved over to the east veranda but was soon up again. At 1:05 Astrid came to the nest with the remains of the pigeon that she caught last night. She then presided over a very lively feeding session. The nestling squealed and vied for choice bits of meat. At one point Niles tried to eat a whole pigeon leg that Astrid handed to him. Luckily, after a valiant attempt to swallow it, he let it fall to the ground. Halfway through the meal Niles walked away and his sister continue to feed. Amelia had taken a break before that only to come back for another helping later on. By 1:24 both nestlings were full and had walked away. Astrid left with the scant remains of the meal. At 1:31 Ares arrived at the nest and gave a bark-like screech – not to be confused with his usual semi-long screech. He hopped into the box and tried to feed Niles a food scrap he found lying on the floor. Following that he began casting shade in the middle of the box. Neither chick took advantage of it, but it was there if they wanted it. At 1:56 Ares left the nest. The afternoon was very hot in the box and the nestlings tried to get relief in the partially shaded back corners. They also shifted corners at irregular intervals. At 2:31 Astrid was in the box on shading duty. She made a futile attempt to keep the nestlings together in one corner where she could shade them both, but she was met with complaining. Astrid seemed uncomfortable too – sometimes leaving her bill fully gaped. At 3:55 Ares brought prey to the nest. Astrid took it and started a feeding, but quickly changed her mind and took the food out. The nestlings weren’t interested. Ten minutes later Astrid was back in the box trying to be an umbrella once more. At 4:42 Ares came into the nest and had a face to face conversation with one of the nestlings. When it was done, the nestling returned to the corner and to Astrid and Ares flew out again. At 5:30 Ares was back with prey. Astrid took it and did a feeding. When it was over she went back to providing shade. She left the box at 6:40 PM. Ares arrived at the box five minutes later. He started making shade on the east side of the box. The chicks were both on the west side of the box but that didn’t discourage Ares in the least. He left the nest at around 7:15. At 7:32 Astrid came to the long perch. Amelia was doing lots of vocalizing. She was giving short barks and longer lower calls that sounded like Astrid’s famous donkey calls. At 8:05 Astrid brought some food to the nest and did a feeding. It was probably the last one of the day. After the meal Niles went into the corner while Amelia stayed more active. At one point she appeared to make a scrape in the stones. That would be a first for a nestling if that’s in fact what she did. She also did some wing flapping. By 9:00 PM Astrid was on the long perch and Ares was on the State Building. Goodnight falcons.