Author: Matt Perry

The early morning was cool with a developing fog. Astrid and Ares remained active pretty much throughout the night. Ares brought the first meal of the day at 12:09 AM and the second only a half hour later. These were small prey items. At 2:07 he brought in what appeared to be a bat. He waited a little while for Astrid to show up and when she didn’t, he handled the feeding. That was only the second time we’ve recorded Ares doing a night time feeding. At 2:53, Ares came to the box with another small offering. This time Astrid arrived in time and took care of the feeding. Additional feedings took place at 4:53, 8:37 10:30 and 11:38. At 12:50, Astrid flew over to the steeple. She was soaked. She had obviously just returned from having a bath (presumably) in one of the puddles on the hotel ledge. She spent the better part of an hour preening, and fanning out her feathers to let the sun and wind dry them. Another part of her drying routine is to make fast flights around the canyon. I’ve been assured that it’s better than a hair drier. Given the morning, it seemed like today was shaping up to be another mega-feed day like the Monday was. However, then there was a long lull in feedings. The parents were apparently out hunting, but not returning with anything. This is how it is with birds of prey or any hunters. Compared to other raptors, Peregrine Falcons enjoy better than average luck securing prey. They are designed for success, but sometimes their prey beats the odds and manages to elude them. No prey came into the box during the whole afternoon. Finally at 6:15 PM, Ares brought in a Goldfinch. Astrid came in to do the feeding, but the food didn’t stretch far. Ares went right back out, presumably trying to turn up something more substantial. Astrid went back to eyeing Pigeons as they flew through the canyon. The afternoon was warm and sunny, but the growing nestlings didn’t require any shading by their parents. They were able to seek out adequate shade in the box all on their own. Incidentally, the chicks finally began to break the huddle they’ve remained in for the past five days. This gave us a chance to get a good look at them. We are now reasonably sure that chick # 1 is a female and the others are most likely all males. This is all based on the size of the foot and the width of the lower leg. As the afternoon transitioned into evening, the nestlings began getting hungry and restless. All four started producing high squealing begging calls.  At 7:30 PM, Ares appeared from behind the State Building. He flew around it a few times and then landed at the box’s east veranda. He had prey in his talons. Astrid suddenly came from out of nowhere (evidentally she hadn’t very far away), grabbed the food and took it into the box. The prey was a Dunlin (a species of shorebird that is rarely seen in the spring in Central NY). Astrid fed it to her famished chicks in only a few minutes. It was a very raucous scene, but all managed to get some. After Ares dropped off the food, he flew over to perch on the steeple. When Astrid finished with the feeding she flew over and displaced him from his perch. Again, we believe it was her not so subtle way of telling him to go out and get more Dunlins. Other theories are welcomed

Last evening, Astrid stayed at the box for most of the night. Ares brought a small meal in at 2:30 AM and Astrid fed the nestlings. At 5:36 Ares arrived with another meal and again, Astrid did the feeding. The chicks spent yet another day all in a tight group at the back, right-hand corner of the nest box and mostly out of view of our favorite in-box camera. These guys are making it difficult for us to monitor their growth. For the most part, all we can see is the size of the chick pile growing. At 6:00, Ares stopped at the box to check on the nestlings. While he was there he picked up a cast-off bird leg from the floor and then turned like he was going to leave with it, but then appeared to have second thoughts; he turned back around and tried to give it to one of the nestlings. The chick took it for a second and then dropped it. Despite today’s rainy weather A&A did a lot of hunting today and (mostly Ares) secured a great variety of prey including: Pigeon, Black-billed Cuckoo, Starling, Chimney Swift, bat, and more. More feedings came at 7:40 and 8:20. After the latter meal, the chicks’ crops were packed full and we were sure there wouldn’t be another one forthcoming, but at 10:10, Ares brought in more prey and the feed bags were strapped on once again. Less than an hour later Ares brought a bat and Astrid fed it to the young like it was their standard feathered fare. By 12:30 PM, the rainfall had intensified. Ares had been out of view of our cameras since he dropped off the bat. Astrid began giving long calls from the box’s perch. She seemed to be calling for Ares to come guard the box or (believe it or not) to bring more food. At 1:46, Ares returned to the box with prey and Astrid fed the young. At 2:36, Astrid returned to the box with a pigeon wing. I’m not sure if she fed any of that to the nestlings or not. Ares brought more food an hour later and Astrid served it up to the chicks. During a subsequent “chick check” Ares picked up a few scraps in the box and fed them to willing nestlings. Obviously he likes to keep his hand in with the feedings. At 5:36, with the PTZ camera, we located Astrid on the hotel ledge. She was processing a Pigeon she just caught. When she finished plucking (and having a serving herself), she made a grand entrance into the box – diving right past Ares who was on guard duty at the time. She then conducted a marathon feeding. Well before the end of the meal, the chicks were plainly stuffed. Each one of them had bulbous crops sticking out of their necks. It looked like they had two heads each. Undeterred, Astrid kept chirping at them and compelling them to take still more food. At 6:20 one of the chicks surprised us by testing its version of a Peregrine alarm call. It wasn’t too bad for a beginner. Ares brought in the last meal of the day (we think) at 6:45. I’m pretty sure it was a Chimney Swift. It was a truly tiny bird, which Astrid took, processed, and doled out to the babies. The chicks tried to rally to their mother’s call to feed, but were still too full to take more than a few nibbles. Tomorrow is supposed to be a warmer day. Perhaps we will finally get a good look at these chicks and make some determination on which are males and which are females. We shall see.

 

The nightshift was relatively unremarkable (for once). Astrid did spent most of the night at the nest box. Ares brought in prey at 1:00 AM and then nothing else in until the relatively civilized hour of 5 o’clock. The latter meal was a large one and it took Astrid  ½ hour to dole out. All four chicks remained in a tight huddle in the back right corner of the box. This is essentially the same position they’ve been in for the last three days! Our recent spate of chilly weather is largely to blame for this. It has certainly made it hard to see the feedings in detail or to get a good view of the rapidly growing chicks. At 6:54, Ares brought in a small meal. Astrid snatched it from him and quickly served it out to the nestlings. Following that, for about an hour, both parents took guard-like perches on either sides of the box. It was a little unusual, seeing as though it was a calm Sunday morning, with little traffic or pesky people that work in offices and walk too close to windows. The main thing was, they didn’t seem upset. In fact, they took turns grooming and nodding off. The pair remained at the box together until 9:00 AM, when Astrid flew off. The next feeding took place at 11:40. This time Ares brought in a flycatcher (Great crested) and handed it off quickly to Astrid. She did the feeding. Five minutes later, Ares returned to the box with more prey. It was something small this time. As he flew up to the box he gave a cackle call similar to what the Peregrines use as their alarm call. The call got Astrid’s attention and she looked up from the feeding in progress. Ares leaned into the box and handed the prey to her. She took it and put it next to flycatcher she was in the process of disassembling. It was windy and relatively cool today, and it was also highly conducive to the Peregrines’ style of hunting. They did quite a bit of that in the afternoon – frequently launching themselves from their high perches at unseen (by our cameras anyhow) prey. The next feeding of the nestlings took place at 1:40 PM. At 3:48, with Astrid out of view, Ares brought a hunk of food into the nest box and began to feed the chicks himself. Normally what happens next is that Astrid would swoop in, grab the prey and take over the feeding, but this time she was otherwise occupied. As it turned out he was making an expert job of it and the chicks were taking every tiny bit he tore off for them. Meanwhile we located Astrid on the PTZ camera. She was busy plucking and then feeding on a pigeon over at the hotel, and that’s why she hadn’t come over. Ares had finished feeding the chicks by the time she flew over with a large hunk of leftovers. Ares actually remained at the box while she stuffed the nestlings until they turned away from her. Although the pair weren’t seen to do any brooding of the chicks today, they did a lot of guarding the box. One or the other parent was there through most of the day. At 5:43, Astrid went back to the hotel ledge and took a long drink from a puddle. When she came back to the box, she fed the two chicks that weren’t yet full to bursting. Astrid stayed on the perch well into the evening. Ares was nowhere to be seen until around 7:45 when he joined Astrid on the box’s perch.

 

Every night time/early morning is different than last in the falcons’ town. There was no feeding this morning until 3:40 AM, which is late by recent standards. It was somewhat chilly last night and Astrid initially responded by brooding the chicks, but a little after midnight she backed off and moved to the edge of the box. By 1:45 she had left, but presumably was monitoring the nest from someplace nearby. Ares arrived at the box with food at 2:52 AM, and like the night before, he tried to get Astrid to come and do a feeding. However, unlike the previous morning, he didn’t wait very long. Instead he jumped into the box, with prey in his talons and loomed over the nestlings who were (still!) in a tight huddle in the corner. He seemed poised to do a feeding. He plucked a few feathers out of the prey and then just turned and stared out of the box as if waiting for guidance or a call of approval from his mate. It was too dark to tell for sure how the chicks were responding, but from what I could hear and see they didn’t seem to be acting like a feeding was imminent. No, they seem to be ignoring him, as was Astrid. Since Astrid didn’t respond to Ares calls or to his desperate “what do I do now” look, I thought maybe she was out of view of the box, and perhaps even out hunting; it turned out she was perched on the steeple – obviously, in full view of the nest box. She just chose not to come up and do a feeding. Ares did some chirping and a little bit more plucking, but the chicks still weren’t rising to the occasion. Finally, after an awkward half hour passed, he went to the lip of the box and brought his prey with him. At around 3:30, Astrid came over, took the prey, and proceeded to pluck it. Her lively call notes roused all four chicks and as far as I could tell in the darkness of the box, they all fed heartily. “See Ares, this is how it’s done!” It struck me sometime after watching this that we’ve never before seen Ares do a nighttime feeding. Who knew there had to be a special knack to that – certainly not I. The next feeding took place at 5:20 AM. Ares brought in the food and Astrid did the feeding. Another feeding started at 9:50 and went on for over 20 minutes. By the end of it all the chicks and Astrid were sporting full crops. Just before noon, the parents became quite active. The weather was conducive for good flying and they were taking advantage of it to get some hunting in. Both were seen diving off their perches in pursuit of various prey. In the afternoon the nest box was becoming sun-drenched and the chicks were again seeking its shady corners. The parents both came to check on the nestlings periodically and both also took short shifts shading them. At one point the chicks had split up. Two remained in the shaded corner where they have been hiding from our cameras for the past 2 days! The other two had managed to waddle across the box to the opposite corner – once again making it difficult to capture good pictures. When Astrid came back to the box, it was these two adventurous ones that she felt compelled to shade since they were essentially standing in the full sun. Astrid had to spread her wings and sometimes her tail to provide the correct amount of shade to cover these two sunbathers. By 6:00 PM, Ares finally brought in a small meal (a finch). Since it was not enough to satisfy four hungry mouths, he went back out to see what else was available in the canyon area. At  7:03 he brought in another small to medium sized meal and after this feeding the four chicks could all be seen with bulging crops. Shortly after the food-drunk nestlings fell over and went to sleep! Ares came by about 7:21 PM to do a chick check and his landing was anything but graceful. He stayed a few minutes and was off again. By 7:57 he was back with another small offering and decided to try again to feed the young himself. Of course Astrid would have none of it! She swooped in and took over the feeding and made sure it was done just right. The chicks were left alone for a while after that last feeding. Before dark, Astrid retuned and assumed her guard position at the front of the box. It will be another big day tomorrow, I’m sure.

I’ll start today’s falcon saga right where we left off last night. The storm that went through the region in the early evening only grazed downtown Utica. Just the same, Astrid spent the time at the box protecting the nestlings from the elements. Following the “almost” storm, Astrid did some flying around the canyon. She perched on the steeple for a while and joined Ares who had remained on the State Building. At nine o’clock she returned to the box and upon landing made a miscalculation. She somehow missed the lip of the box and fell down between the perch and the nest box. I was at my monitor at the time and looked up to see the top of Astrid’s left wing protruding above the lip of the box. She was obviously somewhere beneath the box, grappling onto the brick wall below where the nest box is situated. Those of you who have followed the Utica Peregrines’ story for a couple of years may recall when Orion accidentally fledged; after falling from the box she hung beneath it in a similar manner before half-falling and half-fluttering to the parking lot below. Fortunately, Astrid is no nestling. She was able to push off from that awkward position and within a few minutes she was back in the box.  As far as I could see she didn’t have a feather out of place.

We try to keep track of all the feedings that take place during the overnight hours and, as far as we know, there have been no feedings that have taken place in the hour before midnight; that is until last night.  So, do we consider a feeding that took place in the hour of 11 PM to constitute the last feeding of yesterday, or do we consider it to be the first feeding of today? For now we’re considering it to be the latter. And so the first feeding of today actually took place at 11:32 PM last night. Ares brought the second meal of the morning at 12:46 AM. At one o’clock another storm blew through the canyon – this time packing a little more of a punch. Astrid was again in the box, protecting the young from the elements. Flashes of lighting occasionally illuminated her as well as the interior of the box. The storm was of short duration and at 2:15, Ares was back with another small meal. Astrid took it and fed the nestlings. A little more than a half hour later, Ares was back at the box, this time with larger prey. Astrid unceremoniously grabbed the food, but this time she flew off into the darkness with it. Perhaps she would store it or make it her own breakfast – we couldn’t know which. The chicks were alone in the box for a while after that, but it was quite warm out – around 65°. Ares returned to the box at 3:05. He had more prey in his talons. He gave long screeching calls from the perch, but Astrid didn’t materialize. She obviously wasn’t around to do a feeding and Ares wasn’t going to attempt one himself. After 20 minutes he flew off into the canyon. Less than five minutes later, Astrid appeared at the box – landing quite competently I might add. Astrid continues to be irritated by human activity in the host building’s offices and more generally in the canyon. Her annoyance level always seems to become more acute as the young become more developed. At 6:50 AM, she was moderately irritated. She was flying around the Adirondack Bank, stopping to check on the chicks and even visiting the verandas on either side of the nest box. At seven o’clock Ares brought food, and Astrid did a feeding. As for the chicks, they were remaining in a tight bunch in the back, right hand corner of the nest box. Anyone watching our video feed solely from the vantage of the “overkill” camera wouldn’t see any chicks in the box at all since they were out of sight of that camera. For most of the day it would look like a box full of prey feathers that hosted occasional visits by adults Peregrines. Good thing we have multiple cameras! At 8:23 AM there was another feeding – conducted by Astrid of course. The parent falcons remained in a semi-agitated mood for the balance of the morning. They did a lot of buzzing by office windows and a lot of checking on the nestlings.  At 10 o’clock, food was brought in, but the pair was still stressed. Astrid did some plucking, but then she abruptly flew away with the meal. In a minute she was back and started to feed, only to fly out with it again. This is all typical agitated behavior. Ares came into the box with more prey, but he exhibited the same behavior as Astrid. He did a little plucking and then promptly flew away with the food. Finally at 10:10, Astrid came into the box and actually fed the young who, incidentally, were still huddled in the corner of the box. The next feeding took place at 2:26 PM. Temperatures dropped and the winds picked up through the afternoon. Astrid did a fair amount of brooding in the box. After not being seen in the canyon for some time, Ares returned to the box with prey at 5:00, and Astrid carried out a feeding. After the food hand-off, Ares went to the steeple, but he didn’t get to rest for long; when Astrid finished feeding she made a beeline for the steeple and upped him from his perch by nearly landing on top of him. Again – this is her subtle way of telling him it’s his turn to stand guard at the box. He complied and remained there until she came in with food at 7:30. This would probably be the last feeding of the day. Ares did bring food in about a half-hour later, but Astrid took it and stored it somewhere. Currently, as of this writing, Astrid in on the steeple, but I imagine she will be in the box within the next half hour. I trust she will be more careful about her landing tonight!