Author: Matt Perry

The falcon nestlings were lively off and on during the night. Still, all of them remained inside the nest box. I didn’t notice any parent visiting between midnight and 4 AM.

At 5:00 AM sharp, it was as if the birds’ alarm clock went off. All of them became very animated at the same time. They began screeching and stretching. Almost immediately they started piling out of the box and onto the verandas. Ares brought a small meal to the box at 5:33. Astrid converged with him at the box and grabbed the food, but immediately lost it to Spirit. Two of the boys jumped into the box after Spirit. The following scene took on the character of a feeding frenzy

After 7:00 AM, Astrid was seen making several hunting forays. She continues to hunt mainly in the canyon. This way she can keep an eye on the nest. Also, her prey is almost exclusively pigeons, and for those she need not travel far; not like Ares does to secure his cuckoos, which are found only on the outer fringe of this pair’s extended territory. Ares continues to take longer hunting trips and is typically gone for stretches of two hours or more.

It’s always interesting to see which intruders warrant attention by the falcons. At about 9:00, an Osprey flying directly over the canyon didn’t elicit even one warning call. A Turkey Vulture that followed a similar course about a half hour later garnered a cackle alarm call from one of the juvenile falcons, but that was it. Astrid saw it too, but made no sound.  At 10:55, a Turkey Vulture that was one of a pair, flew relatively low just north of the ADK Bank building. This time Astrid took off like a bullet from her perch on the State Building. Ares launched after her and soon took the lead as they approached the Vulture. They were truly like guided missiles. Ares struck the intruder at least twice and forced it to lose altitude. Afterwards, A&A returned to their perches in full view of the nest box. Just prior to the Turkey Vulture chase, Ares had come back after being gone for about a few hours. He had prey with him, although from the ground we couldn’t make out exactly what it was. Hopefully it wasn’t another cuckoo! He brought the food up to the window ledge located just west of the west veranda. There Astrid met him, took the food and started feeding. In a few minutes the food was grabbed away by one of the youngsters. That is par for the course these days.

At one point during the morning, we could only see three of the youngsters up on the bank building. One was on the west veranda and two seemed to be sitting low between two windows, on a narrow ledge, and pressed up against the brick wall. Where was the fourth juvenile? Did we somehow miss one fledge? I walked up past the County building and next to the State Office building where I could see more level with the 15th floor of the ADK Bank. From that perspective I could four. There were three together on the same ledge – all laying down and pressed right against each other. It’s amazing how flat these birds can make themselves when they want to.

In the afternoon a Bald Eagle flew over the canyon. It flew high and was not bothered by the Peregrines. Another Turkey Vulture, this one also flying high, was briefly hazed by Astrid. It’s getting to the point where we’re beginning to think that maybe there are one or two individual vultures that she just doesn’t like for some reason.

Late in the morning, Max journey west of the west veranda and passed a second pillar. This is the furthest any of the youngsters have pushed out so far this season. Meanwhile all of the others have been doing their wing exercises. And, importantly, Zander and the other two males have been perfecting their hop-jumps between perches. At noon, Ares took some unidentifiable hunk of food over to the east veranda. After Astrid arrived and took it, Ares did a cowabunga-type dive out of the box. At 6:30, Astrid brought most of a pigeon to the nest box. She had been trying to get one off and on throughout the day, so evidently she met with some success. She dropped of the food with the young and, predicably, a feeding frenzy ensued. All of the juveniles got a piece of the meal. Follwing the big meal, Astrid did some demonstration flights. At 8:30, Astrid had again been gone for some time. She was finally spotted on the hotel ledge, plucking and eating another pigeon. Apparently it was a two pigeon day for Astrid. She brought it to the box and the chicks took it from there. Following their meal, Astrid got upset and began giving warning calls. We didn’t see anything that could disturb her, but periodically, she would sound off.  The nestlings, for their part, climbed and hopped into the nest box. As of 9:00 PM, it looked like all juveniles were in the nest box and all were accounted for. This evening will probably be subdued, but we shall see.

Two nestlings spent the night in the nest box and the other two (including Spirit) spent the night on the east veranda.  Overnight there was only one food drop by a parent in the hour of 3:00AM. At five o’clock, the four nestlings became active and were moving around freely between the box and the verandas. At 5:30 ish, Astrid came to the nest box and started feeding out some leftover pigeon from the day before. Luna and Max were first in line to get served. Before 6:00 AM, Zander was already doing some hop flights between the perches and the veranda and Spirit returned to the nest box. By 7:00, rain was coming down steady and sometimes hard. At the time all falcons were accounted for except for Ares. Astrid was on a window pillar above the nest. Spirit was in the box the other three were on the verandas. During the rainfall, Zander spent quite a while being very exposed on the nest box’s long perch. After the bulk of the rain passed, Ares showed up with a small piece of food. Astrid relieved him of it and in turn, surrendered it to Spirit. It looked like Spirit then shared it with Max, but we couldn’t be certain from the ground.

For a while all four juveniles were on the west veranda, which was interesting. Ares came to the box at around 10:30 ish, but he brought no food. Instead he rummaged around until he found a nearly complete bird. It was a cuckoo; he took it, flew over to the east face of the bank, partially plucked it and fed on it some. A little while later he flew over to the nest box with it. In an attempt to encourage the young to fledge, he flew back and forth in front of the box, all while carrying the food. When he finally landed at the box, Astrid came, took the food and then it was her turn to repeatedly bring it to the box and then fly away with it. She ultimately gave it to the kids on the west veranda. At about 12:30 PM, Zander executed a jump flight between the long perch in the west veranda. After that all four juveniles reconvened on the west veranda, and all took a nice siesta. They were really crashed out! For a while they all lay together in a pile reminiscent of what they did when they were still downy white chicks – all those days ago! Of course now all of them possess fine juvenile plumage.

At 2:30 ish, activity began ramping up again. Spirit went around the pillar and moved onto the window sill located east of the east veranda. That was a big step for her. Later on she made it back to the veranda with little trouble. The juveniles were moving back and forth between the box and the verandas so much it became impossible to keep track who was where. At one point Zander did one of his nice hop flights from the perch to the east veranda, but landed too close to Spirit. A scuffle ensued, but didn’t last long. Ares wasn’t anywhere to be seen in the early evening. We presumed he was out hunting. Meanwhile, Astrid performed a number of checks at the nest box and verandas, but she brought no food. When Ares did return at around 8:00 PM, he had no food either. The nestlings did a lot of screechy begging, but they easily distracted themselves with exploring the ledge, exercising their wings and practicing jumping. In other words, everything they’re supposed to be doing.  Overcast skies insured that nightfall came a little earlier. With Astrid’s apparent encouragement, and just before nightfall, all four nestlings returned to the nest box. Tomorrow (Saturday) is very likely to be the day our first nestling becomes a fledgling.  We will find that out soon enough. If you’re local, consider joining us and helping us to safeguard these raptors when do take first flights.

All four nestlings stayed in the nest box throughout the night. Food was dropped off no less than three times in the early morning hours. Two of the birds dropped off were cuckoos! Astrid came in with food at 5:09 AM. At that time Zander and Max had gone off onto verandas, but Luna and Spirit were there, willing and able to be fed. Soon Luna was also on a veranda. Throughout the morning three of the male nestlings traveled back and forth between verandas and the nest box. Max managed to navigate around the window pillar just east of the east veranda and there he found a nice new spot on a windowsill. Astrid had been showing the kids this spot for a few days now, but Max was the first to make it there. He found that getting back was more complicated and it took him multiple tries to return to the east veranda. Zander also did an impressive stunt; he went way out on the nest box’s extended perch. There he did some flapping and even some causal preening. He ultimately “hop-flew” back to the lip of the nest box. Well done Zander! It was quite windy in the canyon this morning and Astrid and Ares were doing some marvelous flying, some of which appeared to be demonstration flights intended to encourage the nestlings to fledge. Both parents also went out on hunting forays. Astrid made at least two unsuccessful plays for pigeons in the canyon.

At about 9:30, Astrid did some slow passes in front of the nest box. She flew back-and-forth almost as if she was hazing the nest, but this also seemed to be a demonstration flight. She hovered, and then flew across the canyon before doing a slow-motion landing on the State Building. At one point Astrid flew very purposefully towards the north. Ares was right behind her (even though we didn’t see him leave). Both began giving alarm calls and were seen swooping at something in the distance. We finally glimpsed an intruder and identified it as a Peregrine-sized raptor. Unfortunately, all three disappeared behind buildings before we could get a positive ID on the stranger. A little while later both parents were up again, this time they were chasing a kestrel – probably the same adult male that was in the canyon yesterday. The audatious little raptor landed on the roof of the ADK Bank Building before disappearing to the north. Interestingly, an Osprey that flew high over the canyon at around 8:30 barely got any attention for the pair, although one of the nestlings gave an alarm call.

At 12:10 PM, Spirit got up on the lip of the nest box. Once there she suddenly got very curious about the activities taking place on the east veranda. Five minutes later she was on deck along with Zander. This was the first time visiting a veranda for her. It also marked the first time since these chicks hatched that there were no Peregrines in the nest box proper. Through the afternoon the young falcons did some wing flapping and some more exploring. Spirit remained on the east veranda, while Max explored the windowsill west of the west veranda. By 4 PM, rain was beginning to fall. At that time, three of the youngsters were on the west veranda and Spirit remained on the east veranda. Luna decided to go back into the box and pick at some leftovers. The others remained out in the weather. At 4:30 Astrid came to the box with a cuckoo. Zander was out on the long perch and max was on the near perch. Both got highly exciting, but managed to hang onto their respective perches when Astrid lunged in. Again, no one showed any interest in the cuckoo. Shortly after that all the youngsters spent about a half hour giving their harsh begging calls – apparently asking for something other than cuckoo for dinner. At 5:20, Ares brought in something and handed it to Spirit on the east veranda. After she had a share, Zander and Luna played tug-of-war with it and presumably ate some as well.

The parents made many visits to the box today – partly because of the fantastic flying weather that prevailed though most of the day, but also to encourage the young to exercise and possibly to fledge. In the early evening, Astrid finally got a pigeon. She brought it to the State Building, plucked it and then took it to the box. There she left it for the three males to pick at. Spirit wasn’t ready to come back to the box at that point. After 7:30, Astrid became quite upset, and we weren’t sure why. She repeatedly gave chatter-type alarm calls and occasionally made quick flights to the northwest and then back. Ares was perched on the State Building at the time, and he didn’t seem to be overly concerned about anything. Still, Astrid remained in an irritated state for about an hour – off and on. It may have been her way of communicating to the young that they shouldn’t try to leave the nest quite yet. When we left the canyon at 8:45, rain had started, Astrid and Ares were on the State Building, Spirit and Zander were on the east veranda and Max and Luna were in the box. Will we have our first fledge tomorrow? Every day it becomes more likely. Come help us with our Friday fledge watch if you can.

It was fairly active in the nest box overnight, but fortunately all four of the nestlings remained inside until morning. At 5:00 AM, they began getting more adventurous and started going out on the verandas – all but Spirit, anyhow. Spirit was content to remain inside the nest box for the entire day. Max and Zander were especially busy coming and going from the verandas, while Luna was less intredpid. At 6:10 AM, Ares brought food to the box, Astrid took it and fed Spirit who happened to be the only bird in the box at the time. Soon Max came in and Astrid fed him as well. I think this was the only time that a parent fed nestlings today, all the other times involved food just being dropped off.

Interestingly, After the feeding, Astrid spent the entire balance of the morning perched on a pillar just above the nest box. Ares was on an adjacent pillar for much of the time, but left periodically to chase prey and intimidate passing Turkey Vultures.  Astrid gave alarm calls fairly frequently in the AM and we weren’t always sure why. The nestlings were also giving their renditions of falcon alarm calls. Their versions are generally higher in pitch and to my ear sound a little like Pileated Woodpecker calls. At around 8:00, a male American Kestrel came out of nowhere and assumed a low perch on Grace Church. We thought that maybe he was the cause of some of the alarm calls, but when he flew off, no one seemed to take notice. The nestlings (not including Spirit) got a lot of practice negotiating their way between the nest box and the verandas, but they did only a relatively small amount of wing exercising. When Astrid finally did move off the pillar in the early afternoon, she made an unsuccessful play for a pigeon.

Later on in the early evening, we watched Astrid soar higher and higher until she disappeared in the east. Ares had been MIA for at least a few hours at that point. We assumed he was on an extended hunting trip. About an hour later, Astrid reappeared on the hotel ledge. She had a pigeon and had eated about a third of it. The rest she dropped off of at the nest box for Spirit and Max (who came back from the veranda when he saw the food).  After the food drop, Astrid made many visits to the nest box – just checking on things. Finally, after 8:00PM, Ares finally showed up in the canyon. He didn’t have any prey with him, so he went over to the State Building and landed on a ledge where he had stored a cuckoo. It seemed like he was going to bring the cuckoo over to the chicks, but decided against it. Is he finally getting the hint that no one like to eat cuckoos?

As darkness fell, all of the nestlings returned to the box. A & A took perches on the State Building and the Steeple. It seemed the action was over for the day. Maybe there will be a fledge tomorrow? We shall see. Join us if you can!

The nestlings where lively overnight but they stayed inside the nest box, even though at 3 o’clock AM, Astrid seemed to be coaxing them to come out. Come the morning light, Zander moved onto East veranda, Luna moved onto the west veranda and Max follows a little while later.

Astrid and Ares stayed very close to the nest box throughout the day. Both made brief hunting foreys  – Astrid chased a few pigeons and Ares went after assorted prey. At one point Ares retrieved some stored food from The State building. It was a Black-billed Cuckoo; he brought it to the box and then to  Zander on the East veranda. Astrid intercepted it, but then left it laying at the corner of the veranda for Zander. As usual, Zander wasn’t interested in the cuckoo, so it just sat there.  A little later, Ares came back and left a Great Crested Flycatcher on the same veranda. Now that was a tastier meal and Max even came over to help him polish it off.

Spirit seemed completely content to remain in the nestbox today. This is typical behavior for female Peregine nestlings. Initially, they hang back and let the males do all the exploring. A little later in the morning, Astrid brought something to the box for her. She took it and and ate it all herself.