Peregrine Breeding Log for May 24 – 25, 2019:
Friday, May 24th had a chilly start. It was overcast with misty rain and windy. Temps were in the 50’s. Astrid was in the vicinity of the box for part of the overnight period. At 1:38 Ares brought in a small item of prey. Astrid took it and did the feeding. At 2:30 AM Ares brought something else. Astrid was nowhere to be seen and so he jumped in to conduct the feeding. It was dark in the box and therefore difficult to see what exactly happened, but after a little while he seemed give up. He almost left but then decided to give it another try. That time he gave chirp notes as he fed. Unfortunately, that didn’t get their undivided attention either. At 3 AM one of the adults was perched on the State Building. The other was glimpsed flying around west face of the State Building. At 4:00 Ares came to the box with something small. Astrid took it and started feeding the chicks.
Both parents had been on the State Building, but then at 5:49 it looked like Astrid upped Ares from his perch. That rather turned into the theme of the day. Astrid came to the box to check on the nestlings at 6:08. The winds allowed the parents to effortlessly soar everywhere today and they took full advantage. Ares came to the box with food a few minutes later. Astrid rushed him, took it, and began a feeding session. The meal ended at 6:17 and then Astrid jumped onto the perch, opened her wings and let the wind pull her away. The nestlings were splitting their time between being a little (or not so little) snowbank in the corner of the box to being pure rabble; squabbling, wing-flapping, and moving all around. At 7:04 Astrid came to the box with food. She then fed the chicks for about twenty-five minutes. Ares came to the box at 8:26, just to check on the nestlings. He found a hunk of food on the floor and handed it off to one of the chicks. Just then Astrid arrived and took back the hunk that Ares just doled out. The chick wasn’t able to swallow it. Astrid knew to rip it up first before feeding it out.
At 9:49 Astrid landed on the roof of the nestbox. A few minutes later Ares sailed over to the nest. He had prey in his talons. Astrid hopped off the roof and onto the long perch. She took the food and served it to the young, one piece at a time. It was a fairly long feeding. Astrid was on the State Building for a little while before coming back to the box to snack on a small piece of leftovers. She was back up on the nest roof at 10:36. We’re not sure what happened, but ten minutes later, both parents were swooping around and giving cackle alarm calls. She landed on the box very briefly before launching and reigniting her outrage. A few minutes later they had calmed down again. Ares came to the nest and tried to feed a chick anther scrap from the floor. At 11:11 A&A were on the State Building on adjoining ledges. He screeched over to the steeple ten minutes later. At 11:36 she displaced him on his steeple perch and took it herself. Just another way of getting the male out hunting. He was on the State Building almost an hour later and we think she may have displaced him again. Poor Ares! He gets no respect.
At 12:41 Astrid came to the box. While she was on the perch one of the nestlings just missed her with a stream of whitewash. She left after that. Ares came to the box a few minutes later. He had some interesting interactions with the crew. For the most part they were meeting him individually – biting at his bill and bouncing around him. Astrid sailed over the ADK Bank and came to the box. She saw Ares was in there but seemed disappointed there was no food. At 2:24 one of the nestlings gave a practice cackle call. Astrid came over and suddenly she was giving volleys of alarm calls and darting off purposefully. We had no idea what that was all about. Ares had been out of view for a few hours at that point. Was Astrid only trying to get his attention? At 2:47 she brought food to the box. She fed the clutch for about ten minutes. After that she spent come time on top of the box. At 3:53 Astrid was plucking a Pigeon on the hotel ledge. Ares reappeared in the canyon at the same time. He dramatically screeched over to the steeple. We expected her to bring it right over to the nest, but she was taking a cut off the top first. By 4:07 she was back at the box feeding the young. The feeding lasted about 25 minutes after which Astrid joined Ares on the State Building.
At 4:41 Ares came to the box, found a scrap of food on the loor and tried to offer it to the chicks. The were already stuffed and showed little interest. At 5:53 it was Ares turn to have prey on the hotel. Less than five minutes later he brought it to the box, Astrid took it and started feeding it out to an anxious crowd. I guess they weren’t so full after all. When the feeding was over both adult falcons were on the State Building. They stayed there for over an hour. I’m not sure when Ares left for his night perch, but Astrid came back to guard the nest sometime before 8:50 PM. Good night falcons.
Saturday, May 25th had a cool start with temps only in the mid-40’s. A thick fog rolled into downtown at the approach of dawn. Temps quickly rose into the high 60’s by mid-morning. Skies were partly cloud but rain came in the early afternoon. Temps topped out at 70 degrees. Astrid was in and out of the nest area all night last evening. Ares came to the box at 1:50 AM. He had a small prey item with him but instead of feeding it to the chicks he left with it. At that time, I picked out Astrid on the hotel ledge. A few minutes later she flew to the west veranda. She moved over onto the perch at some point and spend much of the early morning hours right there. As far as we know there wasn’t any other early morning action. Ares brought a small meal to the box at 5:13. Astrid took it and handled the feeding. The chicks were obviously still hungry. They were doing a lot of squealing while the parents stood guard on either side of the box. At 6:11 Astrid brought what appeared to be a Catbird to the nest. While the feeding took place, Ares came into the box and stood behind Astrid. He chirped for a while and then departed. The meal was finished by 6:21.
At 7:12, I noticed there was a feeding in progress. I didn’t know if it were scraps or something more substantial. Deb said that Ares had brought it in and that Astrid grabbed it like a maniac, which isn’t too had to imagine. Deb thought it was a cuckoo. At 7:27 there was lots of wing flapping taking place in the nest. Ares came to check on them but then hopped over to the east veranda. At 8:00 a feeding was in progress. It appeared to be an entire Pigeon. She fed them for about 25 minutes. Ares screeched over to the east veranda at 8:34. At 10:17 Ares came to the box. He went inside and checked out the chicks. He stood before them. It looked like he was addressing them. Astrid arrived and watched the strange scene from the crossperch. He left after a minute. At 12:30 one of the nestlings was practicing its cackle calls. Astrid came to the box at 1 PM. It was just a check in – she was right out again. The chicks got all stirred up and squealed through her whole visit. At 1:06 Ares screeched over to the box. He hopped inside, gave one of the chicks a feather. The chicks dropped it. Ares picked it up and gave it back to him. The chick dropped it again and then moved off. Ares picked up the same feather and give it to another chick. That chick dropped it. After whatever that was, he hopped back onto the crossperch and from there, onto the east veranda.
A 1:19 Astrid arrived with some leftovers. She fed the chicks for about ten minutes and then flew to the State Building. It seemed that no sooner did she leave that Ares showed up at the box with prey. Astrid dashed right back, grabbed the food and started up the feeding machine. By 1:50 the parents were perched like sentries on either side of the box. The next feeding happened at 2:30. Ares brought in a goldfinch and Astrid was feeding it out. It didn’t take long. At 3 PM he brought another goldfinch. Astrid came back and conducted another short feed. At 4:14 Ares brought something more substantial – a Blue Jay. Astrid took it from him on one of the verandas. She took it in the box, plucked it in a hyper fast-motion manner (not unusual for her) and then started feeding the nestlings. The meal was finished at 4:28 and she left the box. At 5:24 both falcons were on the ADK Bank building, west of the box. One of the chicks gave a cackle call (they are getting better!) at 5:55. Astrid came landed on the crossperch at 7:09. The next time I checked (at 7:15) Ares was on the crossperch and Astrid had gone to the State Building. The nesting started squealing at that point. Obviously, they were hungry. Ares brought food – probably to one of the verandas (I heard this only). Astrid took it and flew with it over to the hotel ledge. There she fed on it for about twenty minutes. There was still plenty left to feed to the nestlings. Towards the end of the meal, Astrid gave one of the females a chunk that was a bit too big. She tried to take it back but got some grief for it. The chick held it down with its foot so Astrid couldn’t pull it away. Astrid prevailed in the end, got the piece and ripped at it some more. She doled it out and then the meal was done. They falcons ended the evening with Ares off to some undisclosed location and Astrid tucked in on the west veranda. A thunderstorm came through at close to 10 PM. Astrid came out onto the west veranda perch and stood guard. Good night falcons.