A cool and moonlit predawn gave way to a warmer, sundrenched day; warm is a relative term. Temperatures hit the mid-forties by noon and hit 50 degrees after that. Astrid first came to the box at 1:36 AM. The moon was like a spotlight on her in the box. Well, she does have that special star appeal, at least to us. She sat inside looking like she was going to lay an egg until 2:26, when Ares came with food. The prey was a Woodcock. After an awkward scramble on the cross-perch, she grabbed the prey in her bill and fled into the night. Ares left shortly after. She was back only ten minutes later and we think it’s likely she didn’t feed and perhaps only stored the Woodcock. At 5:10, a second food transfer happened at the box. It looked suspiciously like the first one and involved the same kind of prey. We think it was likely the very same Woodcock that he brought earlier. This time she took it over to the hotel and even though it was still dark out, we could just discern her working on the meal. At 5:45, she was on the State Building and that’s where the pair mated. Both were at the box at 6 AM; Ares was inside and she stayed out on the cross-perch. It was a short meet up; she was there for less than a minute and then she went over to the State Building. In the next hour both were up and down too many times to cite. Both were at the box again at 6:20, but it was just like before – Astrid never went farther than the cross-perch and before a minute was up she was out of there. We were not sure where she went that time, but he was in and out of the nest box many times in the hours following. At 8:12, she returned again for an encore presentation of: Talk to Ares and then abruptly depart. It was the third time she had done that today. We were starting to think that she wanted to be at the box without him there. When she left she flew to a window ledge on the State Building. At 8:25, the pair was having a ledge display in the box. It was the first true one of the day. This one, like many recent ones, was heavy on the beaking behavior. After he left she did the usual work around the box. She made scrapes in both of their favorite places on either sides of the floor.
Based on their heightened activity levels and frequent absences during mid to late morning hours, we think it’s possible there was an intruder active in falcons’ territory. At nine o’clock, the pair returned to the box, vocalized excitedly and then flew back into the canyon still calling. It did seem like there was an intruder nearby. Although, when I went downtown to check, I didn’t see one. Astrid was on the State Building and Ares was at the nest box – both calm as could be. But then at 9:45, Astrid took off from her north facing perch, made a tight bank around the east side of the building and headed south. I didn’t see Ares leave, but suddenly he was gone too. Ares returned a half-hour later, but then took off again, heading in that same southerly direction. Could there be an intruder or pair of intruders setting up shop somewhere on the southern periphery of A&A’s territory? Maybe. There are no good nesting opportunities out that way, but it’s possible some falcons are game to try. Astrid and Ares came back together at 10:30. Astrid went right to a one of two steeple perches we can’t see with our cameras. Very tricky! At one point Ares flew over to mate with her, but aborted the attempt and flew back to the box. She remained until 11 o’clock, at which time she went to the box, talked to Ares and relaunched into the canyon. They were both at the box a half-hour later, but it was another highly truncated summit. Ares was coming in and out of the box at varying intervals. He was really quite the Jack-in-the-box today. She also has been more active than we would expect for an “expectant” hen falcon. If he was the Jack-in-the-box, she was the yo-yo. They were both at the box at 12:30. They occupied the same space for a minute, but there was no display. She did the usual post-display housekeeping stuff. She made three scrapes and then bit the wooden lip of the box for a while. Ten minutes later, she got excited when she her mate flying. We think he was pursuing prey at the time. Soon after that he landed on the east veranda with her lunch. She hopped out onto the cross-perch and side stepped over to take it. He was holding it out for her, but he also wasn’t letting go of his end. She really had to yank it away from him. She took it over to the Hotel to eat and he remained at the box and did a few chores. She was on the State Building after that and stayed there until about 1:30, after which we lost track of her for a while. She did show up briefly at 2:45, but then managed to eluded our web cams for a bonus two hours. At quarter to five, she was back on the State Building and an hour later the pair mated there. After mating he bounded back to box.
At 6 PM, Astrid was on the steeple and Ares was at the box, when suddenly she began vocalizing. She was bowing and giving standard “chirrup” type calls. Ares was calling too, but I got the sense there was a third falcon in the mix, although I couldn’t find it on cam. After a few minutes she flew up and landed on a window ledge west of the nest box, but then she was in flight again. At 6:50, Ares brought more prey to the box. Astrid flew over to meet up with him. She maneuvered over to him and tried to take the gift on offer, but he again didn’t seem to want to let go. Ultimately he did release the food; she took it and flew off and out of camera view. At 7:30, the pair performed what would be their last ledge display of the day. It was short and sweet and there was lots of beaking. While bowing to his mate, Ares literally turned his head up-side-down and swiped bills from that position. Ares left the box a few minutes later and likely went to his secret night perch. Meanwhile Astrid appeared to be settling in for a long stay in the box. We shall see if Easter Sunday yields any falcons eggs. We aren’t that confident since it’s April Fool’s Day as well.