Snow and Cold Puts Courtship Behavior on Hold

Peregrine log February 26, 2019

Ares hides out from the high winds on an east facing  window ledge
Ares hides out from the high winds on an east facing window ledge

Astrid and Ares kept a low profile during the intermittent blizzard conditions that took place on February 25th (Monday). While Ares was seen a few times, Astrid managed to stay off camera for the entire day. In the early morning, Deb saw the pair perched on the east face of the ADK bank building. There, Ares was photographed looking into an office window. In mid-afternoon, Ares spent some time monitoring the nestbox from an exposed perch on the other side of the canyon. While there he experienced the full force of the driving snow and intense gusty winds.

Ares tries to bring up a pellet while sitting in the nest box
Ares tries to bring up a pellet while sitting in the nest box

The following day (Tuesday) was colder but not as windy. Snowfall was light. Both falcons showed up on the State Building at around 6:10 AM. They shared a ledge display at the nest box  just before 7:00. Following the dance, Astrid did some chores around the nest – moving stones around mostly. Later in the afternoon she returned to the box briefly to ingest some gravel. She left soon after that.  At 12:40, Ares came to the box. He had an obvious crop which was an indication that he had recently eaten, but if he gifted anything to Astrid, we missed it. Before leaving, he did a scrape in the stones. We didn’t see him after 1 PM. Later in the afternoon, Astrid was seen perched on the east face of the ADK bank. She was last seen chasing Pigeons.

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