Utica Peregrine Falcon Update for May 28, 2018 –
Astrid spent most of the night in the vicinity of the nest box. She had retired to the west veranda in the late evening. We think the objective of her move was to get out of whitewash shooting range. The chicks almost hit her a few times recently. She ended up spending much of the night there. At one point she returned to the long perch only to retire back to the veranda a little later on. In contrast to recent nights, there were no overnight feedings. In fact, we didn’t find a single instance of Ares visiting the box during the night. Finally at 5:35, both adult falcons were spotted on the ledge at Hotel Utica. From there Ares flew over to the box, but he didn’t bring breakfast. The nestlings began screeching at him and demanding food. To avoid them he hopped over to the west veranda. At 5:48, the pair switched places. She was on guard at the box and he flew up to the roof of the State Building. From there he sailed off to the north. Ten minutes later she launched after some unseen prey. Shortly afterwards, one of the pair darted back through the canyon and landed on the State Building. Ares then returned to the box, but again with no food. At 6:15, Astrid was over on Hotel Utica plucking prey. Evidently one of them finally caught something. We thought for sure the next step would be for her to bring the food to the box, but she was eating it herself. Ares came over next, and when she walked away from the food, he grabbed it and flew off. This time we expected him to bring it to the box. He didn’t. He flew to another spot on the hotel and was eating the leftovers himself. Meanwhile at the box, the chicks weren’t exactly going mad with hunger. They did some occasional begging, but for the most part they were snoozing in a downy heap. Ares was on guard duty at the box at 6:30. Astrid flew around the State Building and then relieved him on the cross-perch.
At 8:05, a feeding was finally happening at the box. Astrid brought it and carried out the feeding. It was a whole bird but she fed it out quickly. In fact the entire thing was finished within five minutes. The next meal came in at 9:35. It was probably a Mourning Dove. At that time, for some unknown reason Astrid was in a bit of a frenzy. She paced back and forth on the perch and then snatched the food from Ares right upon his landing. It started out with chicks # 1 and 2 getting most of it. Number 2 grabbed it away from Astrid, but she took it back just as fast. Chick # 3 did some screeching in his mother’s face while trying desperately to get a share. At 9:50, Ares came to the box. Astrid conversed with him briefly and then she left the nest. The parents converged at the box at 10:44. There was no prey involved. For all intents and purposes it seemed like they were poised to do a ledge display at the box. Of course, there were three lively chicks in the nest. Ares hopped into the box while Astrid bowed and called from the cross-perch. One of the chicks came up to Ares and started pecking at his bill as if there was food to take. What they were doing did resemble beaking behavior. It was confusing though. Astrid came into the box next and a chick came up to her and tried to get nonexistent food from her bill. The variety of falcon calls given in the box at that time was astounding. They were producing a zoo full of noises. The pair did some bowing and they came close to dancing, but then Astrid called to terminate it and Ares complied. At 12:06, Astrid was again in a manic state. She landed on the perch and was screeching over and over like an oversized fledgling. We thought that meant Ares had food and was flying in from somewhere. We were correct. Ares had prey in his talons and he was plucking it on a window ledge on the State Building. Astrid kept screeching, but Ares didn’t seem inclined to speed up his process. Of course, no one could blame him if he was hesitant to fly to her when she was in such a state. Instead, she went to him, grabbed the prey and took it to the box. We didn’t get a good enough look at the prey to identify it, but it was sizable enough to last quite a while in that crowd of feathered piranha. After the meal Astrid flew over to the State Building and perched on the window ledge right next to the one that Ares was on. They did some communicating through the partition.
At 12:30 PM, Ares was on duty. A half hour later he screeched into the box as he hopped over from the east veranda – thus proving that one doesn’t need to fly in order to make a grand entrance. Meanwhile, Astrid was settling down in the window ledge on the State Building. It’s important to note that the adult falcons, particularly Astrid, normally avoids the window ledges since they don’t appreciate being surprised by people looking out their office windows at them point blank. This being Memorial Day, no one was in those offices and the falcons seemed to know that somehow. The next feeding was at 1:23. Ares dropped off a bat and Astrid fed it to the chicks. Ares was on guard duty again in the mid-afternoon. He was traveling a lot between the box and the east veranda. At 3:30, Ares was doing some shading in the box. At one point he even tucked the egg beneath him. By 6 PM, we hadn’t seen Astrid in a little while. It turned out she was on the steeple. By 7:21, we saw her having a drink on the hotel ledge. A short time later she switched with Ares at the box. She soon moved onto the west veranda where she would be safely out of the nestlings’ splash zone. Later on she returned to the long perch. At 9:07, Astrid got very excited and began calling out from the perch. She saw Ares flying back into the canyon. He probably had prey and had just stored it. After that he took a perch on the north face of the building. What will the falcons do overnight? We have no idea, but we’ll be sure to include it in the next update.
