Author: Matt Perry

Chilly temperatures and windy conditions once again kept the falcons tight on their eggs. As a matter of fact their incubation switch-overs were lightning fast and so the exposure of the eggs to the cold was greatly minimized. There was one observed food exchange that took place at the nest box – Ares delivered a unrecognizable hunk of prey. A bit earlier Astrid was on the hotel and partaking of leftovers from yesterday’s pigeon meal. By the end of the morning the pair were heard giving alarm calls, but were not seen going after anything. We thought that perhaps some unseen migrant raptors were flying over the canyon. However, two hours later, the drill turned real and Astrid was seen trying to drive off another Peregrine. Ares stayed on the eggs during the incident, but he became quite anxious and issued lots of squeaking calls. No one got a close look at the stranger so we have no details on its age or identity.  Soon enough the intruder was gone and Astrid was back in the canyon. By late afternoon  Astrid was again on the eggs. Ares either went on a hunting trip or was only perching out of our PTZ camera range. At any rate we didn’t see him after 4:20 PM.

 

This morning was cold and windy and so was the rest of the day. The Falcons responded by making their incubation changeovers double fast. This ensured the eggs weren’t exposed for more than a few seconds at a time. If Astrid was going to lay a 5th egg it would have happened last evening, so we can now confidently state that we have a full clutch. Finished with egg laying for the season, Astrid seemed to be more like her old self and when she wasn’t sitting on the eggs, she did some fancy flying around the canyon. As far as we know, Ares didn’t bring her any food tributes today, but in the early evening she caught her own pigeon. She took it over to the hotel where she proceeded to pluck and then eat practically the entire thing. We had an interesting moment this afternoon when it looked like there were two falcons perched on the State Building at the same time Ares was incubating in the nest box. Did the video stream freeze? What was going on? It turned out that the bird perched above the highest row of windows was a pigeon and not a third falcon. That explained why there weren’t any alarm calls. A little later on Astrid displaced the brave (or foolish) little pigeon and claimed its high perch. Unlike last night when we lost track of Ares at around 5:00 in the evening, tonight he stayed at the box and on the eggs until Astrid came back to relieve him at nearly 7:00. Predicable these birds are not!

 

Today the falcons’ incubation continued without any major interruptions. This morning Astrid and Ares switched quite a few times. As if to make up for bringing in no food yesterday (nothing that we know of anyhow) Ares brought two food tributes to the box this morning and Astrid took them both. She ate one of them on the church steeple. She still seemed to be hungry afterwards and a little later on in the day she was seen diving out out after prey herself. During two of the switches, Ares didn’t seem to want to leave the box and it took some persuading by his mate to get him off of the eggs. The second time Astrid wasn’t as patient and was stronger about imposing her will. She crowded him and seemed poised to step on his tail. At this strong prompting, he left. In the noon hour the birds were acting as though they were upset about intruders in the canyon, but they gave no alarm calls and no one saw anything suspicious. The falcons dashed around the downtown area in a mild frenzy. It turned out that they were upset about some people that were walking around on the roof of the State Office Building. One of them apparently tried to get a picture of Ares. Some rain fell in the mid-afternoon and following that the birds weren’t very active. We lost track of Ares by late afternoon. Astrid was in the box as the sun disappeared. It’s possible that Ares was sleeping on the State Building somewhere where we couldn’t see him.

 

 

It was a pretty normal day of incubation for the falcons. The pair switched with each other pretty seamlessly throughout the day. Twice before a switch, Ares seemed like he didn’t want to leave the eggs and required some gentle coaxing from Astrid. In previous years it seemed that she ousted him more forcefully, even to the point of going behind him and stepping on his tail. Today she compelled him to leave with beaking only, which is something the pair do a lot of during bonding displays. Perhaps the tail stomping will happen further down the incubation road. No food was seen being exchanged today, although both birds made attempts at securing prey. There was no mating reported either. That doesn’t come as much of a surprise seeing as though Astrid has most likely completed her clutch. Astrid incubated and otherwise minded the eggs during the warmest part of the afternoon today. She was also seen going over to the hotel ledge for a drink from a puddle. Ares was in the box till pretty late. As a matter of fact, he’s still in there at 7:00 PM as I’m writing this.

Astrid spent the entire night in the box as expected. Temperatures got down to just below the freezing point overnight. This meant that she had to stay tight on the eggs the whole time – or at least when either of us were looking in. When Ares came in at 6:10 we saw that there were still only three eggs in the nest. We knew that Astrid was close to laying the fourth egg, but from her actions it seemed that maybe she didn’t know it. When she spied some prey from her perch on the steeple, she dove for it. She came back in the box at around 7:00 and 17 minutes later she laid the fourth and probably final egg of the clutch. Through noon there were quite a few changes of the guard with both birds sharing the incubation duties pretty evenly. In the morning the temperature rose up through the 60s and by afternoon when the sun was hitting the box, it was looking rather uncomfortable in there. Unlike yesterday when Ares took most of the hot shift, today Astrid endured the bulk of it. Ares brought food to her twice in the afternoon. I missed the first gift, but it was small. The second gift was a Woodcock which Astrid took. She flew over to the steeple where she proceeded to pluck and eat it. It’s unlikely that there will be anymore eggs laid in this nest this season, but Peregrine Falcons are able to lay clutches of 5 eggs, so it is possible that we’re not done yet. Astrid tends to lay eggs at an interval of about 60 hours, which is on the long side for Peregrines, but is normal for her. If she keeps to this schedule we would have a fifth egg at around 7:00 PM Tuesday evening

 

 

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