Author: Matt Perry

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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As expected Astrid had taken the night shift in the box. It was a cold and windy night and she appeared to remain tight on the eggs the whole time. Ares came by with a Woodcock at 5:50 AM, but she didn’t seem interested and left the box without taking it. About 15 minutes later she was seen having a drink of water on the roof of the hotel. The pair shared incubation duties fairly evenly for much of the day, although it seemed that Ares drew more time during the afternoon when the sun was flooding the inside of the box. Only a single mating attempt was seen today and no food transfers were witnessed. Astrid did have a good sized crop in the late morning, so we believe that she did eat something. There were also the remains of a woodcock on the sidewalk below the nest box ledge, so that’s another indication of recent feeding. At one point in the afternoon the pair left the eggs for nearly 10 minutes, which is risky on such a cold day, but at that time the sun was exerting its full force in the box and so in our opinion, the eggs should be fine. Ares was seen zipping around the canyon at full tilt in the mid-afternoon. The winds were right for it, so why not. It looked like he went on a hunting foray to the south a little while after that. Despite the cold and wind we had an excellent turnout for our Downtown falcon watching event this morning. Participants got to learn all about our falcons’ habitat and see Astrid and Ares’ favorite hangouts. We even checked out the original nest site used by Maya and Tor back in 2008 & 2009.  Our falcons weren’t very active during our walk, but there were other birds of interest flying by the canyon including an adult Bald Eagle. Thanks to all that attended and hopefully we’ll see you in June during Fledgewatch if not before. We are expecting Astrid to lay a fourth egg sometime tomorrow morning. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

Astrid and Ares were serious about incubation today. Following Astrid’s long overnight vigil, both falcons took turns incubating the three eggs. In fact, since the day was so chilly we hardly got any looks at the new egg. It was virtually always under one falcon or the other. Today there may have only been one food exchange that took place and no matings were reported for the first time in weeks. A fourth egg will likely be laid sometime Sunday morning.  Tomorrow the Utica Peregrine Falcon Project people will be in Downtown Utica to give a tour of the falcons’ canyon and see Astrid and Ares. Anyone and everyone is invited to come and see these amazing raptors in person. We will be at the Adirondack Bank parking lot tomorrow at 10:00 AM.

It was very rainy off and on today – mostly on! Despite that the falcons had a fairly active day. As usual, it started early with Ares bringing a meal to Astrid at 4:27 AM. She didn’t take it, but let him have his early turn in the box. He stored the meal and then came right back. Throughout the day the pair took turns being at the nest box – sometimes incubating and sometimes only guarding the eggs. We believe that continuous incubation did begin in the late afternoon.  The pair mated at least five times today, including once during heavy rainfall. There were at least 3 food exchanges – one appeared to be a bat. Finally, Astrid laid egg number three at approximately 7:40 PM. We only glimpsed the new egg for a second when she shifted and so we have no pictures of it yet. We will be sure to post some tomorrow once the light returns.