Peregrine Breeding Log for May 20 – 21, 2019:
Monday, May 20th was off to a wet but mild start. The sun came out and temperatures climbed into the 60’s fairly early on. A few rain showers popped up in late morning. Astrid was in and out of the nest during the night. For a while in the late evening she was tucked in on the west veranda. Ares came to the nest with a small prey item at 4:40 AM. Astrid was not around and so he conducted the feeding. He looked around frequently during the meal, expecting his mate to barge in at any time but she never did. He finished the feeding at 4:58 and went out onto the crossperch. At 5:27 Astrid was seen perching on a window well ledge on the State Building – something she doesn’t normally do. Of course, she knows that know person is going to show up at an office window at 5 in the morning. She was back at the box 20 minutes later. At 6:25 she was plucking something on the hotel ledge. Evidently, she caught a Pigeon. Ares soared by her at one point. Five minutes later she plunked into the box with the meal and began a marathon feeding. She finished up at 6:50 and flew away with the leftovers. Five minutes later, Ares brought prey to the box. Astrid dashed over, grabbed it from him in a frenzied manner and started another feeding. The chicks were pretty full from the last meal but she kept coaxing them to take more by holding food up to their beaks and uttering loud chirp notes. She finished this bonus feeding at 7:08 and then flew over to perch on the steeple.
At 7:36 Astrid was on a window ledge east of the nest box. The wind was picking up by this point and the adult falcons were using it to get free rides everywhere. Ares gave some long calls at 7:47. Shortly after that he was on the steeple. At 8:19 Ares came to the nest with food. Astrid left her perch but headed away from the box. Ares approached the chicks and started to feed them. He was only a minute into it when Astrid came in. Instead of giving her the food and allowing her to do the feeding, he left with it! She left right after that. At about 10:00 Astrid was in the box brooding the nestlings. She also did some digging in the corner of the box. Ares brought something small at 10:19. Astrid took it and did the feeding. The next meal came in at noon. Again, Astrid handled the feeding. She was out of view about 6 minutes later. At the nest one of the chicks did some wing flapping. Generally, the nestlings did some stumbling around today but mostly they kept in a pile in one corner. At 12:19 Astrid landed on the roof of the nest box. Unlike the day before, her stay on the roof wasn’t a long one. She floated back to the steeple. At 1:45 Ares brought prey to the nest. Predictably, Astrid conducted the feeding. It lasted until 1:50. At 2:00 PM she was back to the box with something sizable. She plucked it like mad before getting into a long feeding session. Chick # 4 hung back during this meal. He appeared to be trying to bring up a pellet. Twenty minutes later they had polished off the entire bird, Astrid left and the food-drunk chicks all collapsed into sleep.
Ares brought the next meal at 2:50. After another frantic handoff, Astrid fed the chicks. The meal was over at 3:03 and Astrid was out. At 3:30 Ares came to the box. He picked up a scrap of food laying on the floor and made a half-hearted attempt at feeding it to one of the chicks. He then went to the lip of the box and picked at it like he was going to eat it himself. After that he unceremoniously dropped it and left the nest. Both parents made quick visits to the box before 4 PM – two each. They would sail in on the wind and then kite off. The chicks had ridiculously bulging crops and wouldn’t require food for a while. The parents seemed to know that and took a break for a while – her on the steeple and him on the State Building. At 5:13 Astrid was back in the nest and doing a feeding. Ares came in after the meal was finished and acted like he wanted to feed the chicks too. The trouble was, he didn’t have anything. Astrid went from 5:26 until 7:46 without going to nest, which I believe is the longest she’s gone since the chicks hatched. For some of that time she was in view, but for most of it she was out of sight. Ares did several check-ins during that time. At 7:46 I heard Ares screech a few times and give some interactive calls. I thought there may have been an intruder causing trouble, but what I was hearing was a food transfer. Ares gave a Woodcock to Astrid and she brought it to the box. She then conducted a long feeding. At one point one of the chicks had an odd shaped chunk of mostly feathers and bone stuck in its bill/throat. After a few minutes it came out, either aided by Astrid or by the chick’s own maneuverings. The meal was over at 8:04 and Astrid was out of the box. She went to the State Building after that. Ares was there for a while and then left, presumably he was off to his night perch. 
Tuesday, May 21st started out cool and windy. There were some showers in the early morning hours. Temps were in the low forties, but the wind made it seem colder. By late morning the sky began to clear. The temps rose a little, but it remained very windy. Gusts were stronger by late afternoon. Astrid was in and out of the box in the overnight hours. When she was present, she was mostly brooding. There were no overnight feedings. Ares was seen on the State Building at 5 AM. At 5:09 the pair switched at the box. He wasn’t into brooding and left again after only a few minutes. Astrid came back and stood on the crossperch, but not for long. The nestlings were becoming restless and doing a lot of squealing. It was clear that they were hungry. At 5:58 Astrid landed in the box with a thud. She brought almost an entire pigeon. The chicks squirmed and squealed as she plucked it in front of them. Soon they were being fed. The three older chicks dominated the front row for the early part of the meal. The runt of the clutch eventually pushed his way forward and got some bites. At 6:18 she was out with the leftovers, but she left behind a wing. Astrid came back two minutes alter and started feeding the wing to the nestlings. She was brooding again by 6:30.Ares screeched through the canyon at 6:44. He landed on the hotel ledge with prey and was plucking it. At 6:55 he brought it to the long perch at the nestbox. Astrid grabbed it and began to feed her already full chicks. The nestlings were all bunched up into the corner of the box today, which is something they do on cold days. At 7:13 Astrid flew from the box carrying a hunk of leftovers.
At 9:49 Astrid was heard giving alarm calls. We weren’t sure what that was about. Both adults were on the State Building less than ten minutes later. She sailed over to do a chick check at 10:10 and it was Ares’ turn to do one at 10:47. At about 10:50 Ares brought food to the box. Astrid came in and snatched it and then started feeding the nestlings. During much of that meal three of the chicks were vying while the fourth one picked at stones or something else on the floor. The feeding was done at 11:03. At 12:55 Astrid was conducting another feeding. We think she got the food from Ares but we didn’t see the actual handoff. At 1:31 Ares came to the box to check on the nestlings. While there he tried to interest a chick in eating a bird leg. The baby wasn’t interested and dropped it on the floor. At 1:40 the nestling were moving around a lot, but not venturing far from their favorite corner. Wing flapping revealed the feather sheaths developing on their wings. Tail feather sheaths were also becoming noticeable. At 2:21, another meal was at hand. Ares brought it and Astrid was doing the feeding. She was finished at 2:36 and left the box. My live stream connections were failing in the late afternoon and so I missed some action. I know that Ares did a chick check at 3:41. Astrid did a check at 5:11. At that time she did some gliding around the canyon and then returned to the nest. She gave a hearty screech call which Ares knows as the call for dinner. Right before that she tried to catch a Pigeon near the hotel but missed it.
At 5:13 both adults were on the hotel. Ares was picking at a meal. We kept expecting him to bring it to the box but that wasn’t happening. He was treating it as his own dinner. That whole time she was watching him from about twenty feet away down the ledge. At about 5:20 she glided over to him, swooped down and relieved him of his food. She then took it to the nest. The maneuver was reminiscent of the one that Ares used on her many times during the winter, back when he was trying to steal food from her. She was done feeding the chicks by 5:39. At 6:30 we weren’t sure where either falcon was. Finally, we heard Ares screech at 6:42. He had landed on the steeple. Ten minutes later she ousted him from his perch. She was compelling him to fetch more food. For the next forty minutes both falcons were in and out of the nest several times. And then, at 7:21, Astrid brought dinner. It was a hectic feeding. The famished chicks were all biting at Astrid bill at the same time. The meal was finished at 7:25, but then Ares screeched through with more prey. Astrid took it from him on a window ledge west of the nest. By 7:33 she was feeding the crew again. The nestlings gobbled up their portions and the meal was finished by 7:46. Following that, both A&A were visible on the State Building until about quarter after 8 o’clock. He left around then while she remained in place well after dark. She came to the long perch just before 10 PM. Good night falcons.
