Author: Matt Perry

Tonight at about 7:00 Astrid laid her second egg. This event was the culmination of a particularly active day for the pair. Today Astrid spent most of her time away from the box, but always kept an eye on it from her perch on the other side of the Downtown canyon. Ares brought prey back at least 4 times and their were as many instances of the pair mating. There were also at least 2 or 3 courtship dances inside the box. Full incubation has yet to begin, but will probably start sometime before the next egg is laid. We should see the next egg by late Sunday night or early Monday Morning.

 

 

As requested, we’re posting the video the video of Astrid laying the egg on Wednesday morning. From the perspective of camera 3 (directly above), it’s a little hard to tell what’s happening, but this was it, folks! Close to the end of the nearly 5 minute clip, she moves out of the way to reveal the egg. Ares comes into the box at the very end and gets a look at the egg for the first time.

Wednesday morning at 9:00, Astrid produced her first egg for the 2015 breeding season. This is fully 9 days earlier than she began laying last year. We can expect up to 3 more eggs to be laid in the coming days. We suspected that egg laying was imminent based on Astrid’s recent behavior. She had been loafing on the State Office Building more than usual and instead of coming to the nest box to receive food from Ares, he was bringing it right to wherever she was perched. Last night Astrid came to the box and spent a lot of time sitting. We thought the egg might come then, but it didn’t. She had come and gone 2 more times by morning. At 8:30 AM she was back and obviously ready to lay. The incubation period for Peregrine Falcons is at least 33 days, and so we expect hatching of the eggs to begin in early May. These are exciting times indeed!

The Utica Peregrines have remained very active for the past week. During this period plenty of courtship displays have taken place at the nestbox. Ares has also been bringing many prey tributes to Astrid – most of which he was willing to let go without a prolonged tugging match. A few days ago he brought her a bat – the second time this season. He actually ate most of it by himself, which you can see for yourself in the video linked below. If you fast forward 3 mins and 20 seconds into the video, you can see Ares tempting Astrid with the bat. He even tore off a small piece and fed it to her as if she was a nestling. Peregrine Falcons are generally quite strict about their prey, limiting themselves to flying birds. Bats would seem to be the only regular exception to that rule.

It was another very active day in Falcon Canyon (Downtown Utica) as Astrid and Ares continue their courtship rituals. Over the past week there’s been a marked increase in the number of displays taking place, but today we got to see an example of a more intense display session. It began at the nestbox with Ares taking center stage and Astrid out on the front perch. After a few minutes of bowing from these positions, Astrid started to lope about on one of the box’s side perches; she began peeking her head in and out of Ares’ view – now you see her, now you don’t! After a few minutes of this she jumped into the box and the pair’s mutual bowing dance began. This time it was way more buoyant than usual with Ares in particular acting like he had swallowed a giant spring. But I think in his case it was more likely that “spring fever” was to blame. After some intense bobbing, Ares dove from the box and flew off out of sight. However, the show wasn’t over, as Astrid seemed to know. She peered out as Ares began a flight display. The camera was actually able to pick up part of his performance as he appeared to nearly strike the box with each pass! More action of the day included two instances of mating at the box (a new record for a single day) and at least 3 tributes of feathered prey were presented to Astrid by Ares.

Ares flybys start at about 5 minutes into the following video clip: