The overnight period was cold and dry with temps in the low forties. After sunrise, temps rose quickly, reaching the mid-sixties before noon and 70 degrees in the afternoon. Astrid brooded the nestlings all through the night (Friday night). Ares brought prey to the box at 2:53, 3:40, 4:30, & 5:31 AM. Each time Astrid accepted the food and fed the chicks. That was a lot of feeding in just a few hours. After the last meal, Astrid left the nest. Ares came over to fill in at the nest. He was barely settled in when she came back and took over again. Ares went to the steeple for a short time, but then was out of view for quite a while. The chicks were alone in the nest when Astrid left at 9:26. Ares screeched over to the box ten minutes later. The chicks squealed in his face and pecked at him as if he had food – he didn’t. At 9:38 Ares brought a meal; she took it and started doling it out to the chicks. At 11:06 Astrid took the leftovers out of the nest and then came right back. At 11:41 she stopped brooding and was digging in the corner of the box. She left the nest at noon and was out of view for a while. Meanwhile, Ares was on the steeple watching the nest. At 12:15, both parents were on the State Building on adjacent ledges. They were both up at 12:30. He went to the box to sit with the nestlings, and she was out of view. At around 12:50 Astrid was back with her clutch and Ares was out.
At 1:08 PM Astrid left the nest – leaving the chicks on their own again. Her and Ares spent some time on the State Building. At 1:48 She was feeding the clutch. Ares had dropped off food for her a few minutes earlier. Following the meal, the nestlings spent some time alone in the nest again. Astrid was back with the chicks at 3:00. She began shading them shortly after that. At 3:26 the kids were alone in the box. Astrid checked on them at around 3:50 and then they were on their own again. For the first time one wondered away from its sibling huddle. It appeared to be the first hatch. It managed to amble over to the far side of the box about a foot away from the other two. The smallest chick then staggered over to where the first chick had gone. At 4:04 Astrid came into the box with food. She seemed a little at a loss for how to deal with the spacing of the clutch. How does she feed them like this? She chose to feed the two that were together and not the outlier. Soon the lone chick realized what it was missing and waddled over to be noticed by its mother. After the meal Astrid flew out and left the chicks, once again on their own. At 4:50 PM Ares stopped in for a chick check. He lingered on the lip of the box momentarily. At 5:00 Astrid was back with them. Ares was next spotted at 6:19. He was on the hotel plucking prey. He brought the meal to the nest at 6:24. Astrid took it from him and started feeding out dinner. The meal appeared to be done by 6:47. After nibbling on the leftover scraps from the meal she started brooding. Ten minutes later she was looking around the canyon from the crossperch. Maybe she was looking for Ares. At 6:51 she was back to brooding and that was likely where she would remain for the night. Goodnight falcons and falcon folks. We thought she would be there for the night, but instead, she went over to the State building and perched on a windowsill. She came back to the box at 8:30. Was she there for the night?