Author: Matt Perry

The morning started out seasonably cool and a bit windy. Our falcons both landed near simultaneously at the nest box at 5:40 AM. Of course Ares was over-the-top with exciting. He doesn’t often get her to come to the box that early. Alas, she was only there for a moment before sailing over to a ledge on the State Building. Shortly after that, Ares was giving his trademark long screech calls, which is sometimes an antecedent to mating. It turned out to be prescient this time, and at 6:10, he swooped over to her perch and the pair shared a quick mating. It was pretty dark, but we could just make it out on the PTZ camera. Ares’ mating chatter call was also heard and that helped to confirm the act. At just before seven o’clock, Astrid was up and corralling the local Pigeon flock. She hadn’t been in the air for more than 15 seconds before Ares joined the enterprise. About an hour later, Ares came to the box and he was wiping his beak on the cross perch. This was either an indication that he had just fed or that he gave Astrid a food tribute – quite possibly both, but we didn’t know for sure. Even with multiple  cameras online we still miss a lot of the action.

Ares spends so much of his time being intense and hyper alert these days. It seems that he won’t calm down until there are eggs on the nest scrape. During the next hour, Ares bounced in and out of the box a few more times. They may have fit another mating attempt in that period, but nothing we could confirm. By 8:30, Ares was on the ledge of the hotel with prey. It was probably Pigeon leftovers, but we couldn’t be sure. He brought the food over to a window ledge on the ADK Bank. In fact he was just west of the west veranda, which was an unusual choice of feeding places. It seemed like his aim was to gift the food to Astrid, but he kept sampling it. Anyway, she wasn’t coming over, so why not? Eventually she did receive some and about an hour later she was spotted sitting on the hotel ledge with a chunk of prey right next to her.

After taking a short rest at the nest box, at 11 AM, Ares stretched his leg, fanned out his feathers, produced a few long calls, and the flew over to mate with Astrid. A half hour later he was the embodiment of excitement again. Astrid flew by him at least a couple of times in what may or may not have been a flight display for his benefit. For the last week or so, the pair has been enjoying perching on the roof of the State Office Building – usually on one or the other corners. They are like Kings and Queens of the world up there; certainly any house cat would be envious. From up there they get a commanding view of their territory and much more. They can see prey as well as any potential threats. At around noon, Ares was back to the box with more prey. This time it looked to be part of an American Woodcock – the first one of the season for the falcons. Ares took the food to the window ledge located west of the west veranda, and there he polished off most of the “gift”. I guess if Astrid had really wanted it she would’ve come by. Astrid had been on the steeple for a little while, but then the pair spent about two hours away from our cameras. Were they trying to hide form us?

At 3:15, Ares returned to the box and Astrid to the steeple, and 15 minutes later they mated right there on the spire. By 4:30 PM, both falcons were on the roof of the State Building. They took opposite corners of the roof and looked something like tiny bookends on a massive concrete shelf. While she stayed in place for a while, Ares performed a short flight display for his mate. It was possible that another mating attempt occurred at this time, but we weren’t certain. At 5:30, Ares returned to the nest box with a chunk of prey in tow. A few minutes later he delivered it to Astrid on the roof of the State Building. Now that’s service! For us this was somewhat reminiscent of when the parents make food drops to the fledglings. Before long, both falcons were stationed on either corners of the roof again, and that was the last place we saw them this evening. At a quarter of six, both had gone, presumably to their night perches.

 

The falcon’s morning began very early again today. Ares arrived at the nest box at 5 o’clock sharp. He let out several harsh screech calls and then sailed back into the darkness of the urban canyon. He was back at the box by 6:45 and that’s when Astrid joined him for a ledge display. It was an odd “dance” for these long-time partners. Ares spent most of the first ten minutes backed into the right corner of the box. Of course this was the first ledge display the pair held since two days before when a female intruder shared an unexpected dance with Ares. Interestingly, his behavior with Astrid was similar to the stand-offish and even defensive behavior that he showed with the stranger. However, the pair ended the display with some gentle beaking, which was good to see. That was in stark contrast to the almost sword-fight-like beaking he did with the stranger.

The pair partook in much flying around in the early to mid-morning time frame and they were difficult to keep track of. Deb thought they may have mated on the ADK Bank building at one point. At a little after 9 AM, Ares brought Astrid a food tribute, which she accepted and possibly ate on the State Building. Less than a half-hour later, she was seen with a larger piece of food that she may have caught herself or taken out of storage. The pair likely mated on the State Building at 11 AM. Ares spent most of the day coming and going from the box, and while he was there he was periodically giving long screeching calls. At 1:45 PM, Astrid was feeding on what seemed to be a fresh Pigeon on the hotel ledge. We don’t think Ares gifted it to her, so she probably caught it herself. Ares didn’t go over to join her or try to steal any, which was somewhat surprising. He seemed content to man the box while she pigged out. He did leave for a short while at around 2 o’clock. When he returned he seemed to have a partially full crop. Where he fed we haven’t the slightest clue; all we know is that he didn’t join Astrid.

Rain persisted through the afternoon and for the most part the falcons kept to their perches – her on the State Building and him at the box. At just before 5 PM, Astrid was on the County Building and appeared to be in hunting mode. That was surprising since she had eaten so much already. A few minutes later, Ares left his station at the box and mated with Astrid. Upon his return it was apparent he was still full of angst since he continued making his long screeching calls. Soon after that it was dark and both birds withdrew to their night perches.

 

Today we had a resurgence of winter-like weather. Despite that, the Utica Falcons were still thinking classic springtime thoughts. Ares was at the nest box by 5 AM. Astrid was barely visible on the State Building at the same time. Ares was occasionally issuing long screech calls into the darkness. Possibly this was a territorial proclamation to the world or maybe it was a signal to his mate that all systems were go.  He’s obviously ready for the breeding season to get underway. At 6:15, it wasn’t even daylight yet when Ares flew over and mated with her on the State Building. It was a real mating this time, unlike yesterday’s failed attempt. By seven o’clock, Astrid was on the ledge of the hotel plucking a Pigeon that she presumably had just procured.  Ares came over and tried to make a quick grab for some of it, but instead he only flew off in a puff of Pigeon feathers. Astrid started feeding on her meal, but she didn’t get far into it before she began trying to cough something up. Every time she tried to take a bite, she’d start to choke again. Finally she gave up on the meal and loped a few feet down the ledge. Ares showed up again and began feeding heartily. Astrid flew to her perch on the Grace Church steeple and, for a little while, it seemed she was trying to bring up whatever was stuck in her throat. Meanwhile, Ares vacated the hotel ledge. He had probably stored the leftovers somewhere.

By 8 o’clock, Astrid was back on the hotel and finishing the meal. Nobody saw it happen, but it’s likely that Ares brought her the leftovers as a tribute. Anyway, this time she finished the meal without any choking fits After that she returned to her steeple perch and Ares resumed his vigil at the nest box. Just before 8:30, they mated again, right there on the steeple. By 9 AM, snow began falling and the pair spent the balance of the morning on their respective perches. At about 3 PM, Ares had left the box, but in less than 10 minutes he was right back at the perch with most of a plucked Pigeon. It wasn’t clear where this meal came from, but it probably had been stored someplace. Astrid met him on the box’s perch and accepted the gift. She flew to the hotel with it and he joined her there.

Our monitoring was sketchy during this time, so we are not sure if both birds fed or not. A little later, Ares was at the box again. At 5:00, Ares dramatically left the box and Astrid dove from her perch on the State Building at the same time. It looked like she went straight down. Some vocalizing was heard, but we weren’t sure exactly what happened. Later, Ares was on the hotel eating some leftovers and Astrid had returned to the State Building. At a little after 6:00 PM, both falcons had gone off to their night perches in some undisclosed location. Goodnight falcons!

 

Ares arrived at the nest box at around 6:15 AM. Astrid arrived on the north face of the State Building at around the same time. About 15 minutes later he dashed off after prey. He returned a short while later with a bat in his talons. As far as we know, this was the first bat of the season. Unfortunately, the bat was still alive, but Ares dispatched in within a minute. We believe his plan was to gift it to Astrid, but she showed no interest in coming over to accept it. Instead, she stayed right where she was. We learned long ago that Astrid is no fan of bat flesh. Ares left with the catch and probably stored it somewhere. A few minutes later he came back to the box without the food. Given the unseasonably mild temperatures today (with temps in the 60’s), Ares seemed especially keen to get Astrid over to the box. He made several visits over the next two hours, but she wasn’t interested in coming over. At about 8:30, Ares gave some alarm calls from the box, but they were somewhat subdued calls, so we weren’t that concerned. Ten minutes later two falcons were performing a ledge display at the nest box. The “dance” was atypical. It started with some raucous beaking and then Ares stood back while the female did fancy side-stepping moves in the center of the box. Soon the female moved out onto the box’s perch. It wasn’t Astrid! It was an unknown adult female Peregrine with markings similar to Astrid’s. One obvious difference was that she was a banded bird. She was acting like she owned the place – walking on the box’s perches, strutting out onto the east veranda, and at one point she even jumped up onto the roof of the box. All the while, Ares was peering at her from inside the box and Astrid was nowhere to be seen.

Why wasn’t she challenging this intruder? Normally she would be hazing such an audacious stranger. We didn’t know if Astrid had fought with this interloper or not. When I went down there about an hour later I saw three Peregrines zooming around in the canyon’s airspace. The winds were particularly strong today and the maneuvers of the falcons were quick and quite spectacular. The three were lightly sparring and it did seem as though it was Ares that was more aggressive in pursuing the intruder. I was very surprised that it wasn’t Astrid taking the lead since it was a female interloper. But for all I knew, Astrid had already done her share of persuading. Without any clear combat taking place, suddenly the stranger was gone and it was only our home pair diving and soaring through the canyon. At one point they converged at the box, but there was no ledge display. Instead Astrid took to the air again and spent a considerable amount of time scuttling the local Pigeon flock and putting on a one-falcon air show. After about 15 minutes, Ares left the box and joined her in the sky.

At noon, Ares was at the box again and after perching for while he abruptly issued some “kack” type alarm calls, but neither bird left their perches. He probably saw a raptor (maybe a migrant) way off in the distance, and possibly sailing on the strong winds. A half-hour later he flew up to Astrid who was perched on a high ledge on the State Building. He hovered over her for a few seconds as if mating, but there was no contact between them. At 2:00 PM, Ares brought an unrecognizable hunk of prey to the nest box. This time Astrid came right over and took it from him. She brought her gift over to the hotel and devoured it. Later the pair was seen perched near each other on the north face of the State Building. Will we see the intruder again? Perhaps. Since she is a banded falcon, we hope we can read the numbers off of her bands and find out where she came from. All we know now is that she came from a New York State nest site.

The last time that three juvenile Peregrines were seen in Downtown Utica was on July 27^th. Two days later Max was the only one left in canyon. The next thing we expected to happen was for Max to leave, but instead, Zander returned to the fold. The two sibling sparred and chased each other (and their parents), quite a bit. By August 2^nd, Max seemed to be the lone kid again. On August 3^rd, we were convinced that Max had left the area. We even made an announcement to that effect on our Utica Falcon Facebook page. Not only did Max reappear in the evening, but he had Zander with him. On Friday night the brothers were darting around the State Building, chasing each other and sparring like mad. High winds in the evening allowed them to fly especially fast. As for Astrid and Ares, they had been doing more and more ledge displays during the period when the kids were less of a presence in the canyon. However, when the young returned the parents reverted to keeping low profiles and even occasionally hiding. We fully expect that sometime soon they will have the canyon to themselves again, but don’t ask us to make a prediction about when that will be. We’ve given up on doing that. At least for this year!