Utica Peregrine Falcon Update for May 23, 2018 –
It was a little cool overnight with some fog developing. Astrid spent most of the night in the box. She did take a few short breaks. In great contrast to the night before, there were no overnight feedings. Ares came to the box once, but without food. At 5:25 AM, Ares relieved Astrid at the nest. She vocalized like she often does when he comes in with food, but appeared not at all pleased when she saw there was nothing in his talons. Astrid then flew around the State Building checking Ares pantry ledges. A minute later he was out of the box. He came back quickly with a catbird. Astrid met him at the box and took the prey. She plucked it like in fast motion and proceeded to feed it out to the chicks. After the meal, both parents took adjacent perches on the Grace Church steeple. They looked like gargoyles or griffins and appeared well suited to the architecture. At 5:50, Ares brought a whole starling to the box. Astrid came over to take it but she dropped it shortly after the transfer. She dove down after it and we weren’t sure what happened then. We couldn’t see anything on the sidewalk or in the street below the box, so we assumed that Astrid recovered the prey. At 6:12, she was on Hotel Utica. She may have eaten the Starling there on that ledge. There was a pile of feathers near her and her crop looked full. Why she didn’t take it back up the nest is unknown. A minute later both adults resumed their griffin impersonations on the church steeple.
At 7:49, Ares gave it another try; he brought more food up to the nest box. This time he landed on a window ledge west of the nest box. Astrid went there to get it from hm. Once she had it in the nest she plucked it and then doled it out to the chicks. The nestlings were impatient to get the food and they were picking at it with their bills even as Astrid was ripping off strips for them. The chicks had obvious full crops but Astrid was still stuffing food into them. One chick was picking at the food on its own. After the meal both parents were on the State Building for a while. Ares brought a small hunk of food to the box at 9:41. Astrid arrived, took it from him on the perch and fed the chicks. If anyone thought the nestlings might be more ambulatory today they were wrong. All three spent most of the day in a heap in one corner of the box. They did a little walking around – mostly one at a time. One of the big chicks (I think it was # 1) rested with its head on the lip of the box for a little while. Some wing flapping and some preening took place as well. They are surely getting bigger fast. At 12:23, Ares screeched up to the cross-perch. From there he jumped into the middle of the box. One of the larger nestlings waddled up to him, touched his bill to Ares’ bill and then went back to the chick pile in the corner. Ares remained on guard in the box for a little while after that. At 12:38 he gave a loud cackle alarm call, but he didn’t leave; neither did Astrid leave her perch on the State Building. He was likely reacting to a passing Turkey Vulture. Five minutes later he gave another alarm call and then moved onto the east veranda. Shortly after that he flew off. Deb saw him flying in high circles over the canyon. By 12:55, he was perched on the State Building with Astrid. Astrid and Ares spent much of the afternoon on the steeple and on the State Building. Ares was out of our view for a few extended periods. Presumably he was hunting.
The next feeding took place at 1:33. We think that Ares brought it and handed it off to Astrid on the east veranda. An hour later Ares brought more prey to the nest. Astrid shrieked over and took it from him and then conducted another feeding. At 2:44, she left the box with the leftovers. The wind really picked up in the mid-afternoon. Fortunately, falcons like wind. It means less energy needs to be expected to fly. Ares was gone for a while in the late afternoon. He showed up again on the State Building at 5:40. He was there plucking prey for quite some time. Both parents were in the air after that and they did a food transfer somewhere. Astrid came to the box with what looked like a little plucked chicken and proceeded to feed the chicks. After a rather long feeding she went over to the steeple. At 6:25, she flew over and plunked down on the roof of the nest box. Now nobody expected her to do that! According to Deb, she may have done that once before today. At a few minutes before 8 PM, Astrid came to the box just to check on the nestlings. She fed out a few scraps that had been lying around in the box and then sat on the cross-perch for a little while. The chicks did some lumbering around at that point. One of the big two stretched its wings and did a few awkward wing flaps. The smallest one walked over to the lip of the box and bobbed its head up and down a few times. After that, all three retired to their corner again. Astrid few to the steeple for a little while and then retured to the box by 8:25. Ares was still on the State Building and seemed to be settled for the night – the first part of the night anyway.