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Last night (Tuesday night and Wednesday morning) was a particularly active one for the Utica Peregrines. Many nocturnal feedings took place. The first one came at 10:25 PM; the second one was less than an hour later. At 11:04 PM there was a longer feeding (15 minutes). That one was cut short when Astrid abruptly left. She returned at 11:54 PM and resumed feeding for a few minutes. Ares brought more food at 12:16; Astrid took it, but again, fed only briefly. This pattern was repeated at 2:24 and again at 2:55 when Ares showed up with a cuckoo. At 3:30, Ares brought a small item to the box and waited on the perch for nearly an hour for his mate to arrive. Finally, Astrid slipped in at 4:26 with what appeared to be a portion of a pigeon. During the last two nights, Ares took the initiative and began feeding the nestlings himself. However, this time he reverted back to the old way, and he patiently waited for Astrid to come and carry out the feeding. Of course when Astrid finally did show up, she already had food with her, so she blasted by Ares and just began feeding the chicks. Ares quietly leaned into the box and passed his contribution to her. She unceremoniously heaped in on the pile and continued feeding. During this feeding, one of the nestlings managed to swallow an entire bird leg. By 8:45, Astrid became annoyed at the activities in the offices located near the nest box. She went on the box’s east veranda and steadily peered at the blocked-off window – no doubt just waiting for it to make a false move. At 10:00 AM, Ares brought more food and Astrid served it to the nestlings. We thought there may have been an intruder in the canyon during the noon hour, but we were unable to confirm it with our PTZ camera. There were some sharp calls heard, and the falcon pair darted around the State Building a few times and then zoomed off to the north. A review of the PTZ recording revealed no 3^rd falcon. At 12:30 PM, Astrid had come back to the box. While she was there, Ares came over, hopped in the box and did a survey of the nestlings. This was something that he probably didn’t have to do since Astrid was already standing guard at the box. We think that was Astrid’s opinion as well given the harsh note she uttered in Ares direction. At 2:00, food was brought to the nest and at 4:00, more was brought in. The latter prey was a Blue Jay. Astrid only fed out a small portion of that meal and then abruptly flew off to store the leftovers on the State Building. The chicks appeared full and lazy by then. It had gotten quite warm out and they seemed to be more interested in getting their beauty sleep. In the evening, we (The Utica Peregrine Falcon Project) had a semi-official pre-Fledge Watch meet up in the downtown canyon. The object was to monitor the adult falcons for an hour or so and let out guests know what they could expect to see and experience during actual Fledge Watch. The falcons were semi-active while we were there. Highlights included Astrid and Ares sailing out on a short hunting foray to the northeast. Ares retrieved leftovers from the State Building and brought it to the nest box. Astrid rendezvoused with him, took the food and conducted a short feeding. It was good to see and hear the falcons in real life as they went about their business in the canyon. We will be there again next Wednesday evening if anyone is interested in joining us.

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.