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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!

 

The day’s activities began super early for the falcon family. The first feeding took place at 1:20 AM; and during that feeding it looked like there were only three chicks vying in the nest. Where was the fourth chick? It was really too dark to see clearly in the corners of the box, but these guys are white after all. I thought for sure I should have been able to at least see an ghostly outline – right? I wondered if a chick had somehow fallen out of the box. Unlikely, since the lip of the box is a few inches high and chicks of this age aren’t known for taking hurdles. I played back the video to see what happened before the feeding took place and I was able to see that the one chick (which I believed was chick # 4) had indeed gotten close to the lip of the box. Following that moment on the tape, Astrid had been in the box and fussing around in that section, but it was too dark to make out exactly what she was doing. I imagined all kinds of things (it was 1:30 AM!) By the end of the feeding, I still wasn’t sure where chick # 4 was. Ares brought more food to the box at 1:45, and suddenly the mystery was solved. Nestling # 4 emerged from the shadows and took a place in the grub line along with its siblings. Apparently, he just wasn’t hungry during the 1:30 feed. Meal time came around again at 4:20, and as expected Astrid handled the feeding. All four chicks were there to be counted and once again all had their fill. Growing falcon nestlings need a lot of food and an hour later Astrid was on the perch of the nest box, looking around and waiting for Ares to bring in more groceries. At 7:10 he arrived with his customary screech. Astrid snatched the food and served the chicks their fourth meal of the morning. As we’ve seen during this recent warm spell, neither parent are spending extended times at the nest box, opting instead to observe the box from the other perches in the canyon. A&A take turns performing “chick checks”, and they do these fairly frequently. At 11 AM, Ares came to the box with a Brown-headed Cowbird. Astrid relived him of it and immediately began plucking the prey. Following that meal, both parents converged at the box and it was clear they weren’t happy. Astrid was standing out on the west perch giving long screech calls, while Ares was on the east perch giving more subdued squeak calls. It turned out they were upset about tree trimming that was taking place in the church yard. The workers were using a bucket truck – something Peregrine Falcons definitely don’t like,  particularly when and they are operating in the falcon’s territory. Bucket trucks, cherry pickers and cranes of all sorts should be banned from the area – according to Astrid. When Astrid is agitated she tends to fly in and out of the box a lot. During the pinnacle of her consternation, Ares gave her a dead bird and so she was diving in and out of the box with prey in her talons. She’d stop momentarily to pluck it and then abruptly dive out of the box again, only to return a minute later and do exactly the same thing again. That’s how agitation manifests itself with Astrid. Finally, she finished plucking the prey and fed it to her eager offspring without interruption. This was the seventh meal of the day. With temperatures approaching 90°, activity levels decreased markedly in the afternoon. The chicks knew to stay in the shady corners of the box and the parents periodically came in and shaded them. At about 3:50 PM, Ares was on shading duty. At one moment it look like he was feeding the nestlings. He wasn’t, but they were touching bills in a manner similar to feeding and similar to what we referred to as beaking behavior. This is bonding activity, which takes place between adult pairs and between siblings. By late afternoon, Astrid hadn’t been seen in a while, but at 5:15 she returned to the box with a large hunk of a pigeon that she must have caught herself. So after fasting for an entire hot afternoon, the chicks enjoyed a long feeding. At the end of the meal, both parents treated themselves to a drink at the hotel – and I mean a drink from the ledge puddles and not from the hotel bar. By 6:30 PM it was clear that a big storm was bearing down on Utica. A&A waited until it was just about to hit before leaving their perches. Ares went to the north face of the State Building and tucked himself tight into the corner of a window ledge and Astrid came into the nest box with the chicks. One willful nestling (chick # 3) was close to the lip of the box and didn’t seem inclined to move to the back with the other three. Astrid tried moving it using a few different techniques; using her beak, her wings and even her feet. All the while the ornery chick balked. Finally Astrid was able to bring it into the fold. As it turned out the storm was not severe in Utica, but perhaps this served as a good storm drill in case a more serious one hits in the future.

This morning Deb visited Ms. Grant’s 5th grade class at Jefferson Elementary School and shared the falcons’ story with them. Madison Burnham – one of our UPFP interns for 2017, assisted her with the presentation. Deb and Madison shared some information about the Peregrines with the students and explained various aspects of their behavior, nesting habits and amazing flying capabilities. The students asked wonderful questions and we were excited to learn that they follow our falcons every day. The students had created a beautiful billboard from their falcon artwork. All of us in the Utica Peregrine Falcon Project are proud to know they are educating their peers about this amazing species!

 

Last night instead of brooding the young, Astrid remained out on the perch until at least 10:00 PM. The first feeding of this morning took place at 1:50 AM. At 3:55, Ares brought food again. Following that feeding, the parents switched and Ares was on duty at the nest box. This was the earliest nest duty he has drawn so far this season.  Astrid returned to the box at 5 o’clock and carried out yet another feeding. During mid-morning, Ares was seen making hunting forays from the steeple and the State Building.  He brought food back to the box at 8:33. For some reason, just after the delivery, he gave a cackle-type alarm call. There didn’t seem to be any raptors in the vicinity, but one would need a falcon’s eyes to make that call. During the feeding it was confirmed that the fourth chick to hatch was holding its own when vying with its siblings for food. Every year, viewers of our camera feeds become concerned that the last chick to hatch isn’t getting enough food or enough attention from the parents. Rest assured, when there is more than a sufficient amount of food coming to the nest, all of the young have no trouble getting their fill. Younger ones or weaker ones may have to wait until the stronger contenders are satiated, but after that, the runts typically get all they need. Apparently our number 4 chick is fairly competitive during feedings, which is good news! At 10 o’clock, the whole family was at the box and Astrid gave some of her trademark “donkey calls”. It was good to hear those again. After that, Ares went out hunting for a while. He came back at 10:35 with food and then, predictably, Astrid took it from him and began feeding. However, only 15 minutes later Ares was in the box doing a feeding. For the most part it seemed like he was doing a competent job. However, when I tuned in to the camera feed on my phone I saw him trying to give the chicks pieces that were obviously too large for them to deal with. When they didn’t except his offerings, he would swallow them himself. It looked to me like he was getting more than the chicks were. Deb made a good observation: she said that invariably, when feeding, Astrid prompts the chicks to open their beaks by periodically making squeaking vocalizations. When Ares was feeding he was silent. Of course, the chicks had only eaten 15 minutes earlier so they one could argue they just weren’t as hungry. Astrid returned to the box at 11 o’clock and gently put an end to Ares’ experiment with feeding. The parents were mostly out of the box in the early afternoon. It was certainly warm enough with temperatures reaching the low 80s. Shading wouldn’t be necessary until late in the afternoon when the sun hits the box with full force. At about 3 o’clock, movement inside the office near the box brought Astrid back to check on the nest a couple of times, but she didn’t seem to be overly riled up. By late afternoon, the parents were taking turns checking in at the box and doing some shading, but never for very long. For the most part, the chicks were able to keep themselves in the shady corners of the box. In early evening, the parents were both away from the box for an extended time. They were in hunting mode. At 6:30, both parents dashed by the box. There were some shill screeching calls. I thought for sure there must’ve been an intruder near the box. But then Astrid piled into the nest with an entire Mourning Dove. She immediately began plucking it right there. Ares landed on the steeple perch around the same time. In the box, the chicks had been spread out around a few feet of floor space. When Astrid started feeding, only one chick was in range, but soon the others mobilized as best they could and waddled their way into a coherent grouping. The feeding lasted over 25 minutes and by the end all four chicks wouldn’t open there beaks anymore and were sporting full crops. When Astrid left the group (with a tiny morel of leftovers) the nestlings were all toppled over in the corner. After perching on the State Building for a few minutes, Astrid flew over and displaced Ares from his perch on the steeple. Of course that was her way of encouraging him to sit in the box for a while. At 7:00 PM, Astrid was on the hotel having a drink from a puddle while Ares stood guard at the box. With longer days, the parents may be up for some more hunting tonight, but I don’t think we’ll see another feeding until tomorrow.

The falcon chicks had their first feeding at 2:30 AM and their second feeding only an hour later. Ares brought more food to the box at 4:50 AM, but that time Astrid took it and stored it. At 5:28, Astrid gave a major alarm call and took off like a shot out of the nest box. There was an intruder and it was identified as a Peregrine Falcon. It appeared to be just leaving a perch on the very top of the Grace Church steeple when we saw on camera. Ares was quick on the scene, and the resident pair took turns diving at the stranger and driving it out of the canyon and to the east. The PTZ camera was able to follow the action for only a minute before the combatants moved out of range. A&A dove at the intruder at least 6 times and made physical contact with it on at least 3 of those dives. But then only a minute later Astrid was back at the nest box’s perch and calling. The brazen intruder had returned and perched on the west face of the State Building where our camera couldn’t see it. Ares upped it from its perch and chased it off to the north. Only a couple minutes later, Ares was back at the box with food. Astrid took it and began feeding the chicks. It was like nothing had happened. At 5:36, Ares showed up at the box with still more food. Astrid was deep into a feeding and she didn’t acknowledge him there on the perch. He came into the box and started trying to feed the brood too. He was ripping off little pieces of meat and holding them out, but all four chicks were fixated on their mother and didn’t turn around once to look at dad. Poor Ares held out food to the back of the chicks’ heads for about eight minutes before giving up and flying off to store the prey. Had it worked out it would’ve been the first time he got to feed this clutch. The next feeding took place at 10:15. Obviously the chicks were eating very well today. Even so Astrid seemed to be compelling Ares to do more hunting this afternoon. On several occasions she was seen displacing him from his perch. This is a trick that fledglings have used in past years to get Ares to fetch food for them. It seems that they may have learned the trick from Astrid or visa-versa. At any rate, both adults were seen chasing after prey numerous times during the afternoon. At 2:37, Ares was back at the box with fresh prey. Astrid took it and conducted another feeding. Only ten minutes later, Ares was back with more food. This time Astrid ate most of the meal herself before topping off the chicks. At 5:00 PM, Ares returned to the box with a jay. Astrid plucked it right there in the box and then proceeded to stuff her babies again. After that large meal the chicks were splayed out all around the box – some partially covered in jay feathers. Astrid came in with the intention of shading them, but she needed to gather them all up first. Two of them were not cooperating; she moved one with her cupped wing and another she picked up by the scruff of the neck like a mother cat would do with her kittens. Ouch! That was something we hadn’t seen before. At 6:10 PM, Ares was heard screeching, but we couldn’t locate him. We did find Astrid on the ledge of hotel where she was drinking from a puddle. Finally Ares was seen on the steeple perch with prey. At 6:30, he brought it to the nest and Astrid did another feeding. When she was done she flew over and displaced Ares from his perch on the steeple. This time we think this was her subtle way of getting him to take a turn in the box shading the chicks. He gave it a try but had no luck corralling the mob and so Astrid had to come back and do it herself. As I’m finishing up this post, it’s 8:00 PM and Ares had just brought more food to the box. This time, Astrid took it away, I she was going to store it, but right now she’s doing yet another feeding! The chicks look bigger every time we look at them and it’s no wonder given their food intake!

 

The first morning feeding took place at 4:20 AM. As usual Ares screeched his way up to the box and passed his offering on to Astrid who did the feeding. Another feeding took place less than an hour later. When Ares returned with more food at 5:45, Astrid sent him off to store it instead. He returned with the same prey only seven minutes later and this time she took and tried to begin another feeding. The chicks weren’t into it though, and so she flew off and stored it herself. At 8:20, the chicks were hungry again and they enjoyed a long feeding, compliments of Astrid. Following that meal, Astrid became very sensitive to movement by people in the offices adjacent to the nest box. Several times, she buzzed by windows – sometimes hovering and even looking in at people (much to their surprise). Did I mention it was windy today? It was an extremely windy day and the falcons took full advantage of the wind to sail and hover and do every imaginable stunt. You might think these birds would avoid flying on days like this, like a sensible seaman would try to avoid sailing on days when the waters were extremely rough; but no, the falcons have so much control over their airfoil (wings) that they can alter its shape continually and handle whatever the air currents can dish out. At any rate, they reveled in the high winds today. At 12:30 PM, Astrid was in the box with the chicks when she saw an intruder flying south over the canyon. She gave her major alarm call and blasted out of the box in hot pursuit. The PTZ camera confirmed that the intruder was another Peregrine. Ares flew in from the north – also on an intercept course. Astrid dove at the stranger and made it change course to the east. Ares flew support but Astrid did the serious ushering. A few of her dives at the intruder made it lose altitude but it continued moving quickly toward the east. Ares flew back to the nest box while Astrid used her powers of persuasion to convince the foreign bird to leave in a big hurry. About ten minutes later she came back and landed on the State Building. Before she returned, Ares made a half-hearted attempt at feeding the nestlings. There was a chunk of what looked like a bone in the center of the box. He picked it up and tried to give it to one of the chicks. To his credit, he noticed pretty quick that this wasn’t going to work and he took back. He then tried to bite a small piece off of it, but found it was impervious and gave up. Just then Astrid returned to the box with prey from the pantry and she proceeded with a real feeding. In the early and mid-afternoon hours, Astrid again became very touchy about activities taking place in office windows near the nest box. She flew by them several times and hovered in front of them, but she gave no alarm calls. We were convinced that she was enjoying giving people in the offices the “eyeball”. Through the late afternoon and early evening, both parents spent most of the time away from the box. They were zooming all around the canyon, hunting, hovering and essentially ruling the sky over Downtown Utica. Both passed close by our PTZ camera several times thus providing us with some cool video and stills. We had a hard time keeping track of the pair especially during the early evening hours. This was the longest amount of time that both parents were away from the box since full incubation began nearly six weeks ago. It was warm enough (in the 60’s) in the box and so the chicks weren’t in any danger of getting too cold. And it also wasn’t hot enough to warrant continuous shading. In short, conditions were just right. The natives were getting restless though, and that was understandable since they hadn’t been fed since 12:30. At 6:30 PM Astrid returned to the nest and upon her arrival she let out a big screech. We took that as her call to Ares to bring food. Apparently her wish was his command, and two minutes later he was on the ledge of the hotel plucking the kid’s dinner. Next to where he was working there was another apparently fresh meal. Had he just procured two birds? Astrid didn’t wait for him to come to the box; she dashed over and grabbed the prey that was sitting next to Ares and then she began plucking. Meanwhile Ares stowed his food in some secret stash and flew back to sit with the chicks. Astrid soon returned with what appeared to be a plucked Mourning Dove and began feeding the famished youngsters.  It was 6:40 and it looked like Astrid was in for the night. Ares on the other hand, continued zooming around the canyon for the next hour. We even saw him blast by the PTZ camera a few more times.  Surprise, surprise, Ares came to the box at 8:10 PM with food and yet another feeding had begun! it seems the sun never sets in this falcon town.