Of course it’s all about the eggs with our falcons – whether it’s Easter or not. The first changing of the guard occurred at 5:50 AM – and that’s when Ares took over incubation from Astrid. There was no prey exchanged at that time. A little later Astrid was seen having a drink of water at the hotel ledge. Apparently her water drinking isn’t limited to egg laying time. Astrid returned to the nest to take over incubation, but Ares balked at leaving. This time, instead of pressing her point like she usually does, she left and let Ares had another half shift on the eggs. Just when you think you know what to expect from these birds they surprise you! At close to 11:30, while Astrid was on the nest, Ares got upset about a group of 3 Turkey Vultures that passed low through the canyon. He gave some alarm calls and then escorted the large scavengers out and to the north. Incidentally, vultures represent no threat to the falcons other than perhaps providing some competition for nest ledges in real canyons and in mountainous terrain. Shortly after Ares’ run-in with the vultures, Astrid began calling to to her mate to have him relieve her at the nest. By that point he had come back and was perching on the State Building, but he wouldn’t budge. He may have been monitoring the movement of other migrating raptors to the north. When he finally came to the box at 11:40, Astrid got off the eggs and shrieked right in his face. He spent the bulk of the afternoon on the nest. It was quite warm out (up into the high 70’s) but the strong winds made it more bearable and Ares never even had to shade the eggs. Some rain showers hit in the late afternoon. Throughout the rain Astrid stayed on the State Building and Ares remained on the nest. When the rain had passed Astrid went out and caught a pigeon which she proceeded to devour on the hotel. After taking some time to digest, at 5:40 PM she came back to the box and relieved Ares. Freed from his responsibilities for the day, he did some fancy flying around the canyon and then presumably went off to his night perch at some undisclosed location.
