Ares on the west veranda
The overnight was mild with temperatures in the fifties. It was in the 60’s by noon and 75 degrees by early afternoon. Astrid was on the nest all night long. Ares was heard calling at around 3:15 AM. We weren’t sure what that was about. They switched at 5:00 sharp. Astrid was out of view for a while and then she became visible on the west face of the State Building. They switched at 7:18 and then Astrid was back to incubating. At 9:14 Ares was on a west ledge and the pair were vocalizing with each other. At 10:06 he went to his pillar perch. By 10:54 he had moved to the west veranda. He was up less than and hour later but then back to his pillar by 11:49 AM. The pair again did some vocalizing but, just like the previous day, Astrid seemed intent on remaining on the eggs. At 12:32 PM Ares came into the box and tried to get Astrid to leave. She didn’t budge and he gave up after a few minutes. He hopped over to the west veranda instead. At 12:50 PM Astrid came out onto the crossperch and stretched her wings. She got right back onto the eggs afterwards. Ares was out of view by that point. At 2:30 they did a quick changing of the guard. Astrid allowed Ares to take over – certainly it was earlier than she allowed him to take over on the previous day. Ares gave a few alarm chirps before settling down on the eggs. We didn’t know what brought that on. A few seconds later he got up again and moved to the edge of the box. He then thought better of it and went right back to incubating. We kept expecting to see Ares shading the eggs during the relatively hot afternoon but, if he did it at all, he didn’t do it for long. At 5:29 Astrid came to the crossperch. Ares signaled that he didn’t want to leave and so she flew over to the State Building. She was back and asking to take over at 6:53 but he still wasn’t ready to go, and she granted him a second reprieve. She went back to the State Building. At 7:25 PM she was back to the box. This time Ares was ready to switch. He was out and she took over on the eggs. Most probably Astrid was settled for the night. Goodnight falcons.
Little Falls Peregrine Update:
As of this afternoon there still have been no hatches in the Little Falls nest. It’s possible that what we believed were pips on one (or two) of the eggs were just some debris stuck to the eggshells. In low quality video, it is sometimes difficult to discern details. It is estimated that the Little Falls birds have been incubating for 33 or 34 days which puts them squarely in the hatch window. However, sometimes in nature things take a little longer than advertised.