Tuesday, May 12 – Still so Cold and Astoundingly Windy – This isn’t Funny Anymore!

Astrid spent another very cold night brooding the two chicks. When exactly is May going to become May-like? Ares brought food to the box at 4:13 AM. She handled the feeding. At 8:16 Astrid gave a cackle-type alarm call from the nest. It was probably in response to a passing raptor, but we don’t know for sure. Ares was on the State Building at the time and he did not budge. At 9 AM Ares was up. He did a close flyby of our one working PTZ camera. We love it when he does that! The persistent strong winds out of the northwest made flying especially easy for the falcons. They are creatures of the wind for sure. He returned to the box with fresh prey only minutes later. It was a Virginia Rail – completely unplucked! Astrid grabbed it, plucked part of it, and began feeding it out to the nestlings. At 9:58 Ares brought most of another Virginia Rail to the box. She scrambled out to the long perch to snatch it from him and then she fed it to the chicks. Rails are like Robin-sized marsh dwelling chickens that rarely fly a foot higher than the tops of the cattails where they live. We believe that Ares must swoop low over the cattail beds on the floodplain in order to flush them into the air and to where he can scoop them up. It is something none of us has seen him do before. He’s caught other marsh dwellers before, and we’ve suspected he has used the same technique in procuring them. At 10:02 Astrid took the leftovers and flew out with them. Ares came right over, hopped into the box, and tried to give one of the chicks what appeared to be an entire Pigeon wing. I guess somebody is out of practice feeding babies! Astrid returned to the box at 10:06 and Ares wasn’t ready to leave yet. They both brooded the chicks together for a few seconds before Ares gave up and left.
At 11:15 AM we noticed that people were gathering on the roof of the State Building. Apparently, there was a jet flyover scheduled to happen over downtown and we think the people were on the roof to see it. Usually Astrid is not happy with any human-activity on one of “her” buildings, but this time she didn’t get overly upset. She looked anxious but resisted giving any alarm calls. As for Ares, he was coming and going from a high ledge on the State Building and didn’t seen to be concerned about the gawkers. At noon we noticed that the egg which had been relegated to the edge of the box yesterday and been brought back into the fold and was being brooded again. At 1:29 Ares brought a fresh Starling to the box. Astrid took it and conducted another feeding. She took out the leftovers 8 minutes later. Ares came right over to babysit while she was gone. The two chicks were writhing and unruly and he couldn’t quite decide on how to approach them. Soon they settled down and he began brooding. He pulled the once-neglected egg underneath him as well. As soon as he had everything in order Astrid bounded into the box. She gave impatient clucking sounds as she crowded him out and made him leave the nest. Poor Ares!
At 3:42 Ares came back into the box. The parents had a loud conversation, after which Astrid left and Ares got a turn brooding the chicks. She came back to the nest with food at 3:53. Ares left and she fed the nestlings. At just before 5 PM Astrid gave a loud-cackle call from the box. We had no idea what upset her, but she didn’t leave the nest. Ares was out of view at the time. She did leave the nest at 5:28 but was back within a minute. We hadn’t seen Ares for a while by this point. He finally floated (on the strong winds) up to the box with prey at 6:23 PM. Astrid took the food and did the feeding. At 7:16 Ares brought in the last meal of the day. This time he hopped right into the box with it and handed it to his mate instead of letting her scramble for it on one of the perches. At 9:31 A strobe light was flashing on the State Building. The building’s fire alarm was going off. Fire trucks arrived on the scene but didn’t stay very long. It was apparently a false alarm. The whole time Ares sat on his high perch on the north face keeping a watchful eye on the nest. Goodnight falcons.

Astrid brings in food that Ares delivered

Ares contemplates brooding the chicks

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