Author: Matt Perry

Today began with light drizzle. Skies were overcast and temperatures ranged from the mid-thirties to the mid-forties. Our first view of the Falcons took place at 2 AM. The pair shared a ledge display which featuring some intense beaking. After the dance, Ares leaped out of the box and Astrid remained, looking a little like she was preparing to lay an egg. Ares returned at 4 o’clock and they switched out. The switch was carried out in a way similar to how they do it when they share incubation duties. Ares left the box at 4:20, only to return at 5:40. While he was there he ate a few stones – or looked like he did. At 6:30 he was on the corner of the Hotel ledge and Astrid was up on the roof of the State Building. A few minutes later she was at the box and he was on the roof. They mated on the long perch about 15 minutes after that. Soon she was up and he was at the box. In the next hour he was in and out of the nest several times. At 6:42, Ares arrived with a starling. He did some plucking but mainly he was just waiting with it. In fact, as late as 8:24 he was still waiting for her to come and take it. Finally he gave up; he flew to the hotel and probably stored the meal there. Anyhow, he came back to the box without it. Astrid showed up on the steeple at 8:52, and the pair mated there. She was at the box shortly after. While there she did some scrapes and some housekeeping. She bit the lip of the box which is apparently something that’s very important to do. Shortly after that she flew to the steeple and the pair mated. Only minutes later Ares brought food to the box and she came by to take it. She flew over to eat it on the Hotel and he followed her there. He perched close by and watched her while she polished it off.

At 9:50, Astrid went to her steeple perch and Ares went to the box. There she remained for the rest of the morning and up until 3:36 in the afternoon. Ares seemed quite content with her position on the steeple. He could easily see her right from the box. In other words, he could keep track of the two things that were most precious to him – Astrid and the nest site. The steeple is also a perfect place to mate since there’s unlimited headroom. He doesn’t have to scrunch himself down or pull in his wings like he does when they mate on the State Building. For certain, Ares’ anxiety levels had ratcheted down quite a bit during this period. Before 3:36, while she was on the steeple, the pair had mated three times successfully and there were two aborted attempts. Following the last successful mating, Ares went up to his lookout post on top of the State Building. Since there was no indication of an intruder, and since Astrid was accounted for, he was more than likely using it to watch for prey. At 4:10, Ares came to the box with prey. It was a Woodcock that he probably caught before dawn and had stored somewhere. When Astrid didn’t come for it, he flew off and probably put it back into storage. Both came to the box at 4:40 and performed a ledge display. This one featured a moderate amount of intense beaking. Afterwards he darted across the canyon and took a perch on the steeple while she did some chores around the box. It looked like she was digging a small hole at the edge and box beneath our original wall camera. What that was about is anyone’s guess. She made a scrape and bit the lip of the box for a while before hopping out onto the cross perch.

At 5:30, the falcons became very animated. Both converged at the box and engaged in some high volume vocalizations. She flew out and the came right back and then jumped onto the east veranda. Then she was up again. Ares was right behind her as she flew east and then north. We lost track of them after that and didn’t see hide-nor-feather for about an hour. That’s when Ares came back to the box. He was giving long wailing calls, which morphed into excited chirrup notes when he saw his mate. We couldn’t pick her out with the cameras, but he obviously knew where she was. He flew from the box to the State Building and then back to the box. This time we saw here for a second before she disappeared behind the east side of the State Building. Ares was up and down a few more times and he spent some more time on his rooftop lookout post. At 7:41, we got a good look at Astrid. She was feeding on the Hotel ledge. Ares landed on the ledge nearby and was monitoring her. Five minutes later, Ares was up and probably off to his night perch. Astrid finished her meal at 7:52 and came to the nest box. She made loud chirrup calls on the cross-perch before settling into the box and onto one of the scrapes. This is the earliest she’s come to the box yet this season. She may very well produce her first egg of the season tonight or early tomorrow morning. We shall see.

Today started out cool and partly cloudy, but it became warmer and more overcast as the day progressed. Temperatures were in the twenties early on, but quickly reached into the low 40’s by mid-day. Light rain started falling in the early evening. Astrid arrived at the nest box almost precisely at midnight. Inside the box she sat on one scrape and then shifted to the other. She flew out at 2:49 AM, and Ares arrived one minute later. He only had a short stay. However, both came back to the box together at 3:26. Ares had prey, instead of gifting to his mate he abruptly left with it. Meanwhile, Astrid remained at the nest. At 4 o’clock Ares was back with the food and this time Astrid grabbed it and left. We don’t know where she brought it or if she consumed it. She was back at the box at 5:30. This time she was on the cross-perches and not on one of the scrapes so we knew egg-laying couldn’t be imminent. A half-hour later, both were at the box. Ares had a fresh-looking woodcock in his talons. Astrid wasn’t interested in taking it so he went off and stored it. He came back and the pair mated on the cross-perch. That was the first mating at the box in quite some time. At 6:04, he was back with different prey. Astrid didn’t like the looks of that either and three minutes later she had flown. She wasn’t seen for quite some time after that. Of course Ares was in and out of the box. At 7:49, he was feeding over on the Hotel ledge. Ten minutes later he brought a chunk of leftovers to the box, but as he waited for Astrid to come and take it, he kept nibbling on it. It was becoming a less and less significant gift. Astrid flew in from the southwest, but she didn’t stop at the box. It wasn’t until 9:26, that we saw her land on the cross-perch. Ares saw her coming first was giving over-the-top, excited chirping calls. She hopped into the box and they kind of did a ledge display. It was all bowing, no beaking, and no footwork. At the anticlimactic conclusion of the dance, Ares left the box, but came back only five minutes later for an encore. The second performance was almost identical to the first and featured little more than bowing. Astrid was occasionally shutting one eye during it. After Ares did his trademark cowabunga type dive out of the box for the second time, she did some housekeeping, which included biting the lip of the box. Fifteen minutes later, Ares came back to the box. Were they going to perform a third display? Nope. Astrid left. She landed on the State Building for a short time and then came back to the Adirondack Bank and perched on a pillar just west of the nest box. She was there between 11:15 and noon, and during that time the pair mated twice. After each time, Ares returned to the nest box. At noon Astrid flew around the canyon and put down on the State Building. They mated there at 12:27. It’s a bit awkward mating there since the ledge Astrid was on had very little headroom. Poor Ares had to really scrunch himself in there and do it in a way that allowed his wings to be extended. It’s hard work!

At 1:44, Ares was at the box again. He had been stopping by regularly, while Astrid, on the other hand, was not in evidence. Ten minutes later, Ares was calling excitedly (as he normally does when he sees her), but we didn’t pick her out on the cameras. Before three o’clock, Ares made three more visits to the box. During the last one he spent some time wiping his bill on the perch as if he had just eaten or had given food to his mate. Since not enough time had elapsed between his last two visits, we thought the latter scenario more likely. Ten minutes later, Deb located Astrid on the south face of the State Building – one of the many places our cameras cannot see. It looked like she had a good-sized crop, so perhaps Ares had dropped off something for her. Through the late afternoon, Ares continued coming to the box and occasionally giving long wailing calls. At 4:50, his mate finally flew in from the south side of the State Building. She put down on a ledge on the north face of the building, but only stayed there for two minutes. Then she was off to somewhere else out of camera view. Ares was up too, but he soon came back to the box and resumed with his angst-filled wailing. As 6 PM, he made a quick dash up to his lookout post on the roof of the State Building. Fifteen minutes later, he dove back into the box. Again, he could barely contain himself – chirping and nervously twitching. At the risk of anthropomorphizing, he was acting like the classic expectant father, except he didn’t have three cigarettes lit at the same time. He obviously saw her and expected her to come into the canyon, but she didn’t. At 6:24, we saw a falcon feeding on the Hotel ledge. We thought it was Ares, since he had just left the box. It turned out to be Astrid. She was feeding very quickly as if she expected a troupe of hyenas to come in at any time steal the food away from her. After a few minutes she flew over to the County Building and wiped her bill down. Ares came back to the box and started making highly spirited vocalizations and nervously moving around the box. He flew over to her like he was going to attempt to mate, but pulled away at the last minute and returned to the box. At 6:40, she launched again and Ares was up right after her. We don’t know which way they went, and we thought they may have gone to their night perches early, on account of the rain. Nope. She showed up again; this time on the west veranda and he landed in the box. They had a loud conversation and then she went back to the County Building.  A few minutes later she was up again. This time she put down on the north face of the State Building. Ares came back to the box, but didn’t stay long. He flew over and mated with her. Following that, he did a few flybys in front of the building and landed on the roof. The pair remained visible on the respective perches until 8:00 PM. Will Astrid lay her first egg of the season tonight? There’s a chance. Stay tuned!

 

It was a cool morning followed by a somewhat warmer afternoon with temperatures eventually reaching into the forties. Again it was sunny for most of the day. Astrid arrived at the nest box at 11:47 PM (technically Monday), which was her earliest arrival for this young breeding season. This time, instead of staying out on the cross-perch as she has in recent nights, she moved into the box and perched on Ares’ mega-scrape. This looked a lot like pre-egg laying behavior to us, but as we’ve learned from previous years, she usually does this a few times before actually producing an egg. She remained in the box until Ares arrived with food at 3 AM. The prey was a Woodcock. She took it and flew over to the Hotel where she proceeded to feed on it. Although it was really too dark to see what was happening over there, but we don’t think she had very much of it before shoving it aside.  Ares stayed at the box for quite a while after that. At 5:30, Ares was back at the box with more food. We couldn’t see the prey well enough to determine what is was, but it was small and mostly de-feathered. One thing was clear, Astrid showed no interest in it. At this point she was on the State Building and remained there until about 6:30. As for Ares, he came and went from the box another couple of times in rapid succession. The second time, he no longer had the food. At 8:12, Astrid was relocated on the State Building. Twenty minutes later both falcons were at the box. Astrid came in doing her famous donkey calls. Sometimes we have to wait until much later in the season to hear those! This display featured a great amount of beaking. At the conclusion, Ares left first, but she didn’t stay for long. At 9:10, Ares was at the box and chirping, but then he flew up to his rooftop lookout on the State Building. Before I could jot that down, he was back to the box again. This happened a few times until at 9:40, both of them were at the nest. She scooted over to the east veranda for a minute and then left.

At 10 AM, Ares was chirping at the box while Astrid was flying around the canyon. She put down on top of a pillar west of the nest box. They mated there a couple of minutes later, and they mated again 15 minutes after that – and then again twenty minutes after that. Apparently the pillar perch was quite conducive for that kind of thing. Directly after the last mating, Ares came to the box clutching a meal. He brought it over to Astrid and tried to give it to her, or use it as a lure to get her back to the box, but she only seemed keen to mate. He went back and forth between the box and the pillar, but he couldn’t change her mind.  At 11:25, they mated on the pillar for the fourth time. Then, just as the sunlight was beginning to illuminate Astrid on her pillar perch, she left and went over to the steeple where she could stay in the shade. Why she wanted to stay in the shade is anyone’s guess. It was a fairly chilly day.  There was an aborted mating attempt on the steeple. After doing some flying around in the canyon and scuttling the local Pigeon flock, the Peregrines both flew to the nest box and at 12:12, they shared a ledge display. About five minutes later, Ares left Astrid to do some work around the box. She bit the lip of the box, picked up stones, did a few scrapes – all stuff like that. For a while, Ares seemed pleased to just be watching her in the nest, but then he dashed out to get her a food tribute. In less than one minute he was at the box with a bat. One might think he’d know by now that Astrid doesn’t like bats. She stood on the cross-perch for a moment and then flew off. He stayed on the lip of the box and ate the bat for lunch. About a half-hour later, at 12:56, Ares came to the box with a fresh Killdeer – the first one that he’s caught this season. He plucked it some and then flew around with it, returned periodically to the box. When it was clear that this gift also wasn’t having the desired effect on his mate, he stowed the food somewhere and then came back to the box to work on his scrape project. A little while after that, Astrid took a perch on the State Building. There was an aborted mating attempt at 1:20 PM. Afterwards, Ares was at the box and working on the other scrape – the one on the east side of the floor. At 3:38, a food exchange happened at the nest box. At close to 5 o’clock, Astrid and Ares were together at the box again, and this time they performed a ledge display. Astrid stayed in the box for some time following the last dance. After a few housekeeping shores, she stood with her back to the box opening and to the sun and she held her wings slightly out. It was a stance we normally associate with shading the eggs. It looked like she was getting some practice in. The length of time she is spending sitting in the box is an indication of the approaching egg-laying. It looks like the event is getting ever closer and may only be a day or two away. I know that we’ve claimed this before, but this time I’m putting two exclamation points after this sentence!! At just before 6PM, the flacons switched out, almost as if one was relieving the other from incubation duties. We didn’t have a confirmed sighting of Astrid after that. Ares came to the box a few times and went up to his rooftop look out, but we couldn’t locate her by camera or by an on-the-ground effort. These birds can still easily elude us despite our technology. He was last seen leaving his perch at close to 8 PM. Likely he went to his night perch. Will Astrid come to the box tonight and lay her first egg of the season? It might be worth a small wager. I for one would hold off on the big bet for just a little while longer.

Today started out cool again with temperatures in the twenties, but the mercury made it into the low 40’s by early afternoon. Today the winds were not as strong as they had been in recent days. In the very early morning, we were blind to what was happening in the falcon box and in the canyon. All of our cameras went out at 1 AM. Fortunately, Deb was able to get them back on line by 6:15 AM. It only took going in to work early on a Sunday morning! When she arrived in the parking she could see one falcon was on the State Building and one at the box. That’s doing it the old fashioned way! With the cameras streaming again, we could confirm that there was no egg in the nest. It now seems very unlikely that our falcons are going to break their early egg-laying record date of March 26^th, which had been set in 2016. That’s all well and good. Only two of four eggs hatched that year and we believe that cold temperatures in late March had a lot to do with that. At 6:30, Ares was in the box giving long calls. We didn’t know if he had given Astrid a food tribute or not this morning. There seemed to be at least a portion of a bird carcass on the Hotel. Its possible Astrid fed on it there before shoving it over and essentially storing it.  By 7:00, we hadn’t seen Astrid in a while and Ares had been calling to her with long screech calls. Finally she showed up on one of the steeple perches. Eight minutes later, the pair mated right there on the steeple. During the next few hours, Astrid was out of view again, but Ares made several visits to the nest box. Meanwhile, Pigeons were having a field day at  some of the falcons’ favorite hangouts. They were walking around on ledges and roof tops and acting like they didn’t have a care in the world. Even after Ares pursued one of in their ranks, all the others kept on with their prancing and fluttering. At 10 o’clock, Ares screeched back to the nest. He was highly excited, which was an indication that his mate was nearby. Sure enough, she jumped into the box and the pair shared a ledge display. She took the west side of the “dance” floor this time, which was unusual. In fact she was standing in Ares’ prized scrape, which he had to be pleased about. After about six minutes of the pair profoundly bowing to each other, Ares left the box. Astrid remained to do some housekeeping. She made three scrapes on the east side of the floor.

At 10:30, the falcons were acting somewhat oddly. While at the box, Astrid appeared to become agitated. She began giving loud chirping-type alarm calls. Ares arrived and he too chimed in with his own chirp notes. She reacted to his presence by bowing and seemingly requesting mating, but then she moved out on to the perch of the east veranda and resumed her vocalizations. After a few minutes of this, she took off and he followed after her. Was there an intruder in the canyon? Not that we saw. Could there have been a migrant raptor flying way above the State Building? Well, maybe. Lots of migrants have been passing through the region this past week, including a few species that could give the falcons some grief – namely, Golden Eagles and other Peregrine Falcons. Neither falcon was seen again until Ares came into the box at 11:30. Right after he arrived, his calling reached a fevered pitch. That meant he had obviously seen his mate. Sure enough, Astrid landed on a window ledge just west of the nest box. She called a few times and then was gone. Ares took off after her again. He doesn’t like to let her out of his sight at this time of year. Just before noon, Ares was up at his lookout perch on top the State Building. A few moments later he was at the box. Astrid came flying in and then zoomed by our roof camera. She again landed on a window ledge west of the nest box, but this time she was looking up and giving long and somewhat breathy wailing calls. She may have been looking at a Red-tailed Hawk that was flying high over the territory or perhaps she saw something else. Falcons do have much keener eyes that we do and they possess the ability to focus in on distant objects far better than we or our cameras can. Perhaps she saw something more ominous than the hawk. She flew off at 12:11 and was quickly out of our view. Predictably, Ares launched out after her. At 12:25, Astrid arrived at the cross-perch and she seemed only slightly less anxious than she had been earlier. Ares tried to mate with her, but he came down at the wrong angle and had to abort. When he came back he went directly into the box. He wanted her to come in for a ledge display but she wanted to mate. Both were being very stubborn. After the ten minute standoff, she left and went to the Hotel ledge but wasn’t there for long. At 1:15, Ares was perched on the steeple, but he didn’t stay there long either. He soared off to the west – possibly following after Astrid. Fifteen minutes later he was back at the box and all amped up. He left quickly. Astrid had just caught a Pigeon and was disassembling it on the Hotel ledge. Ares took a perch further down the same ledge where he could monitor his mate while she dined. Astrid proceeded to eat nearly the entire thing in one sitting. Ares took a little piece that became dislodged while she was tearing into it. While she was feeding, Ares took about five different perches – keeping watch for Hyenas, we reckon. After her Palm Sunday meal, Astrid took a perch on the steeple and did some preening. Her crop was so big it looked like a feathered goiter on her neck – albeit a regal one! At 2:15, they mated there on the steeple. Ares went over to the Hotel and tried to make a meal out of the scant remains left there. He then came back to the box and did some tinkering with his excavation project. The falcons mated again at 3:05.

When Ares next returned to the box, he made a scrape on the opposite side of the box from where his mega scrape is. He was working in the place where Astrid usually makes her scrapes. At 4 PM, they mated on the steeple, and then did the same thing again only ten minutes later! At just before 5:00, both falcons came to the box for a very unconventional display. He was inside the box and she was on the east veranda. Both were vocalizing like mad. She was waltzing around the veranda in an almost frolicsome manner as if she had just discovered Shangri-La. Soon she was swooping around the canyon and putting on a big aerial show. He seemed to be content to just watch her from the box, but then he was up too. We lost track of them for about 15 minutes, and then he was back at the nest and calling. She landed on the north face of the State Building and that’s where they mated. Ares then returned to the box, hopped onto his scrape and moved some stones around. It looked like he ate a few, which isn’t unusual. At 5:57, he left but was back only a minute later with some well processed prey. He flew by Astrid’s perch on the State Building and then came back to the box. When he came back this time he started feeding on the prey right there on the cross-perch. Astrid then came up to the box (or just short of it) as if to take the meal and then diverted over to the steeple and requested mating. He flew by her with the food a few times and then came back to the box. He then unilaterally decided to finish the meal himself. At 6:30, Astrid flew off and was out of our camera’s view for a while. Ares went up to his lookout on the roof of the State Building. At 7:18, he returned to the box and then things got lively. Astrid had just flown up to take Ares’ place on the roof when an intruder (likely a male Peregrine) flew in from the north and buzzed right over Astrid’s head. Ares left the box and flew in to intercept. With wings flapping at full speed he went around the east side of the State Building. The stranger then flew back towards the north with Ares on his heels. Astrid remained on the roof until about 7:45 and then, presumably, she went off to her night perch. Hopefully it wasn’t long before Ares did the same. And that was just one day in the life of the Utica Peregrine Falcons.

Today was cool and mostly clear with a pretty stiff wind that was especially noticeable on rural hilltops and in the downtown canyon. Temperatures were initially in the twenties, but quickly rose into the thirties by morning’s end. Astrid first came to the box at 3:19 AM. She stayed quiet on the cross-perch and didn’t even enter the box until Ares brought food to her at 4:38. The prey appeared to be a woodcock, Astrid grabbed it and flew over to the Hotel to eat it. She fed for close to a half hour and then joined Ares at the box for a ledge display. At around 7 o’clock, Astrid launched after something and Ares followed her. It’s hard to believe she’d go after prey so soon after having such a long feed. At 8:30, the falcons aborted a mating attempt, but then they managed a successful one only 15 minutes later; and that was confirmed by sound only. If Ares gives a chatter call that’s at least six seconds long, then the mating was close to full duration. His vocalizations were loud so we knew Astrid was close by, but where she was we didn’t know. Finally she was located. She was on one of the steeple perches.

Mating on the State Building

At 9:35, the pair came to the box and shared a ledge display. They were beak to beak for the entire three minute dance. Astrid inspected the box afterwards. She slowly circled the floor, did some house cleaning and made a scrape. Ares returned with a gift for her less than five minutes later. He hoped into the box with it, but she declined to take it and flew out instead. At 10:00, there was a failed mating attempt on the steeple. Not long after that, Astrid flew off to the south. She was flying fairly low and didn’t seem to be in pursuit of anything, but then again she was out of view very quickly. At the time we weren’t sure were Ares was, but suddenly he darted past on rapid wingbeats. He was following her. At 10:20, Ares returned to the nest box, and from there he went to his lookout post on top of the State Building. He began giving his cackle alarm call, but stayed on his perch. He was initially looking to the southwest and then shifted his attention to the north. What was he looking at? A distant raptor flying over, perhaps? He soon stopped and began preening. At 10:37, we located her on the Hotel ledge. A few minutes later she cruised over to the State Building and shortly afterwards, the pair mated again. At 10:50, Ares took a steeple perch while Astrid remained on the State Building.

At 11:15, they were both in the air. She landed on the steeple and then moved back over to the State Building. They mated there at 12:15. Fifteen minutes later, Astrid flew off and as expected, Ares followed right behind her. Ares came back to the box at 1 PM. He was calling continuously and getting very worked up. Obviously he saw Astrid, but we couldn’t find her with either PTZ camera. Finally she put down on the State Building and we knew Ares hadn’t seen a mirage. As far as we know, not much happened in the early to mid-afternoon, but our monitoring was spotty during that time. We know that both falcons were on the State Building for a while; Ares was on his roof perch. After 3 PM, he was seen coming to the box a few times. During his visits, he worked on his trench. At 4 o’clock, the pair had a ledge display at the box. These was no beaking; the two participants simply bowed to each other from either side of the box. Five minutes later, Ares flew out. After he left, Astrid had another self-guided tour of the box. She checked out Areas’ tour de force creation. Soon they can be the first Peregrine Falcons on their block to have an in-ground pool. Astrid did two scrapes of her own on the other side of the box and then, of all things, she made two scrapes in Ares’ quarry. The pair continued to be up and down and in and out for a while after that. For that reason they were hard to keep track of remotely. At 4:50, the pair mated. Ares did some fancy flight maneuvers before coming back to the box. Both were on the State Building by 5:20, and they mated there twenty minutes later. Just before 6 PM, Ares brought food to the nest box. He tried to give it to Astrid, but she had no interest in it. He left and then came back a few minutes later without the prey. She went over to the Hotel and he met her there. He tried again to give her the food. At one point they almost looked like they were doing a ledge display, but it was just Ares, trying to coerce his mate into taking the prey. She wasn’t amenable. At 6:30, the pair mated again on the State Building, but it was on the short side, so it may not have been an effective mating. A half-hour later, Ares had prey again (maybe it was the same prey from earlier). He flew back and forth in front of Astrid a couple of times.  He tried his best to entice her over. It worked – she came to the box, she followed him over, grabbed the food from him and ran. She was feeding on the Hotel shortly after. Once she finished her meal, she flew. We reckoned that she went back to her night perch. Ares disappeared at 7:30 PM. Both were off to their night perches. Goodnight birds.