Another wet chilly night was followed by a wet chilly day. It seems like May was inside out and backwards this year – cold at the start, hot and dry in the middle, and then wet and cold at the end. Astrid spent much of the night on the east veranda or otherwise near the nest. Ares came to the box with food at 4:13 AM. Astrid took it from him, began to feed the nestlings, but then abruptly bailed from the nest. The fire alarm was going off at the State Office Building and we think that upset her. She came back with the food at 4:21 and resumed the feeding. The alarm was shut down about five minutes later, only to go off again ten minutes after that. The nestlings were doing a lot of wing flapping both before and after the feeding. At 6:59 Ares brought more food. Astrid handled the feeding. The next food delivery was at 8:39. Ares brought it and she did the feeding. It was a small meal, and it went by quickly. At 9:37 Astrid took her perch on the steeple. Ares was on the west veranda. For a while he was snoozing. By 11:40 he was out of view and Astrid flew to the roof of the nestbox. At 12:44 PM one of the chicks did a very convincing rendition of the cackle-call. I thought it was produced by one of the parents for a few seconds.
At 12:48 PM Ares came to the nest with a hunk of a Pigeon or Mourning Dove. Astrid flew off the roof, made a tight circle in the canyon, and returned to the nest. She snatched Ares’ prey and hopped into the center of the box. During the feeding Astrid doled out rather large chunks of food to two of the chicks. They took it to their respective corners and attempted to self-feed. After leaving the box Ares went to the east veranda and Astrid to the State Building. Following the meal the chicks took turns flapping their wings. At 1:18 Astrid was on the east veranda near Ares. She was posturing to him – it looked a lot like the posture she adopts when requesting to mate. However, her vocalizations sounded more like she was encouraging him to go hunting. At 3:00 Ares stopped at the box to do a chick-check. He was out of view for a long while after that. Astrid did one ten minutes later and got squealed at profusely by the chicks who were by that time getting hungry. Astrid flew around the State Building checking Ares’ pantry ledges but came back with nothing in her talons. At 3:30 she was up on the roof of the nestbox – a reaction to people in the office. She was still there ninety minutes later, and Ares was still out of view. At 5:35 Astrid was on the hotel. She was in hunting mode. A couple of minutes later Ares flew to a ledge west of the nest. He had prey. Astrid first flew to the box and then flew to him. She took the food and dashed over to the nest. The chicks were roaring with hunger and could barely contain themselves while she plucked the meal. She fed it out in less than ten minutes. Following the meal both falcons were out of view again. At 6:25 Astrid showed up on the south facing steeple perch. She was still in hunting mode. At 6:41 she had secured prey and was plucking it on the hotel. After she fed herself, she brought the food to the nest and fed the chicks. She was on the east veranda for a little while following the meal. She was back on the roof of the box at 7:00 PM. We thought the show was over for the night, but then Ares brought prey to the box at 7:56. She took it from him and flew over to the hotel. She fed on it for five minutes before carrying it back to the box and giving the nestlings their supper. Goodnight falcons.
