Interesting Dynamics in the Canyon

Like all female Peregrine Falcons, Astrid pulls every night shift on the eggs and the nest is where she can be found each early morning.  Ares’ appearances are always a bit more mysterious. At 6:00 AM we got our first look at Ares as he perched on the roof of the State Building. This is normally a lookout perch for him and one he resorts to only when intruders are in the area. This time we think he may have just been using it to spot prey. Without providing a gift to his mate, Ares took over incubation at 6:15. After leaving the box, Astrid hunted (apparently unsuccessfully) for just over an hour before returning to relieve Ares. At 9:40 Ares was seen feeding on something over at the hotel. It appeared to be something freshly caught, but there didn’t seem to be much of it and he didn’t save any for Astrid. During one of Ares’ turns at the box, just before 1:00 PM, Astrid landed on the perch and assumed what appeared to posture she uses when requesting mating. We thought maybe she was re-purposing the gesture to request a food tribute.  But if that was her intention it didn’t elicit the desired effect. The biggest drama for the day happened at 2:45 when Astrid (she had been incubating) looked up, abruptly screeched and darted off the eggs. We don’t know what she saw, but whatever it was it made both falcons dash off to the north. Before a minute was up, Ares came back to the box and took over on the eggs. A minute later Astrid was back on the box perch. She barked at Ares and then flew over to perch on the steeple. We joked that this was all a clever ruse employed by Astrid to compel her mate to take over at the box during the hottest part of the afternoon. Ruse or not, that was the effect. Soon after this, Astrid was enjoying a Pigeon meal on the hotel ledge. For the record she wasn’t sipping a pina colada. She was back incubating at 4:36 PM and that is where she will remain for the night. Ares stayed on the State Building for a long time and was last seen after 7:00 PM zipping out on hunting forays from the roof of the County Building. Good night falcons!