It was rainy and cool overnight. The temperature stayed in the low forties. The rain stopped before daybreak, but the sky remained overcast through the morning. The temperature made it into the mid-50’s by midafternoon and there were some breaks of sun. There was no overnight activity with Astrid and Ares. Astrid stayed tight on the eggs all night long. By morning she watched for Ares to appear but she wasn’t impatient enough to call out for him. She did vocalize a little bit when he flew in and landed on the State Building at 6:16 AM. He flew over to the box a couple of minutes later and the pair did a quick switch. As she quickly flew out of sight, Ares settled onto the eggs. At 7:50 Astrid was seen on the east side of the State Building. She then came to the crossperch at 8:13. They mated there less than a minute later and then Astrid got onto the eggs.
Ares showed up in the State Building at 9:04 AM. He came to the nestbox at 10:35 and the pair switched places. Ares climbed onto the eggs just as Astrid flew over to the State Building. She made at least one foray out while were watching her. At 12:03 PM Ares quietly left the box. Astrid came over within a minute to take over on the eggs. At 1:12 Astrid was calling in the box. There must have been an intruder in the canyon and one she had to deal with. She got off the egg and darted into the canyon. Ares was on the State Building at the time and without missing a beat, he came over and took over incubating the eggs. She returned to the State Building at 2:13. Fifteen minutes later Ares began giving alarm calls from the box. It was his turn to abandon the nest and chase after something. Once again, we didn’t see anything with our cams, but Astrid was also out of view. Ares finally returned to the eggs at 2:44. They had been left uncovered for fifteen minutes. It was probably not enough to harm them given the mild temperature at the time. At 3:52 we spotted Astrid on the hotel feeding on something. It didn’t appear to be a Pigeon so she must have gotten it from Ares’ pantry. We think it may have been a Woodcock, which explains why she didn’t finish it. She was on the steeple at 4:04.
At 4:21 PM the falcons did a quick switch and Astrid took over on the eggs. She left again very quietly at 4:57. We don’t know what that was about. Ares came right over and got onto the eggs before a minute was up. At 5:37 Astrid came to the crossperch. She was asking to mate. Ares complied and then she resumed incubating. At that point she was probably set for the night. If Astrid is to lay an unprecedented 5th egg it would most likely happen this evening – sometime between 10:00 PM and midnight. Obviously, this is unlikely, giving that in the past eight years Astrid has only ever laid four eggs in any one clutch. However, since they are continuing to mate, there is a remote possibility of a fertile fifth egg showing up on the scrape. Obviously, the odds are well stacked against this happening, but with nature, you never really know, and you never say never. Goodnight all.