Monday, May 9, 2022 – Most Likely No More Eggs Will Hatch in the Utica Nest & An Intruder in Downtown & Little Falls Falcon Update

The overnight was quite chilly with temps getting down close to the freezing point. After dawn things improved rapidly with the temp rising into the mid-sixties by late morning. By midafternoon it was in the mid-70’s. Once more it was windy, and the skies were mostly cloudless. Astrid was on the nest all night as expected. At 2:57 AM Ares came to the box with food. Astrid took it and conducted the first feeding of the day. The feeding went on for about ten minutes. At 5:00 Ares was back with a small prey item. He tightrope walked across the crossperch with it and then hopped into the box. Astrid didn’t have to scramble to get it this time which was nice. About eight minutes later she had finished the feeding. She left to store the leftovers and came right back to resume brooding. At 5:36 Ares flew over to his pillar perch. She called out during his transit. At 7:53 Ares came to the long perch but then was immediately up again. At 8:12 he was on the west veranda perch. Astrid got off the eggs and went to the lip of the box where she could see Ares. She squawked at him and then went back to her clutch. At 9:00 Ares brought food to the box. She took it and started a feeding. By 9:10 she was finished serving out the meal and went back to brooding. At 10:43 the falcons switched and then Ares had a turn with the chicks. At the start he just stood next to the clutch but, after a little while, he started kind-of brooding them. It was around 64 degrees and they didn’t really need to be brooded so much. At that point Astrid buzzed by the box and then flew to the State Building. We figured that she was checking on the box and seeing how her mate was managing.

At 10:48 Astrid came to the nest and Ares was out. She didn’t have to tell him to leave; her intensity alone told him that he had best cede the nest and go while the getting was good. At 12:09 PM Astrid came off the nest and hopped onto the crossperch and from there, flew into the canyon.  Ares arrived seconds later, screeching into the box, and coming in close to brood. The chicks started begging to him, but he didn’t have anything for them. Three minutes later Astrid came into the box with food. Ares was out and she began a feeding. He spent time on the steeple for the next hour or so, making one foray out at one point. Astrid left the box at around 1:25. She went to the State Building, and he came in to babysit. At 1:33 he started giving chirping-type alarm calls. He dove out of the box and went after something. A couple of minutes later Astrid came in and resumed brooding. At 2:10 both adults were again out of the nest. We weren’t sure what was happening. If the intruder that Ares chased away earlier was back or if was something different. A minute later we noticed that Ares was on the steeple, so he wasn’t dealing with the problem. He then flew over to the box to babysit.

At 2:18 PM Astrid was back from her adventure and had taken a perch on the State Building. She took over from Ares at 2:30. At 3:16 we noticed that Astrid was shading the clutch. It had gotten quite warm by this point and the sun was flooding into the box. At 2:24 Ares brought prey to the nest. Astrid took it from him and started a feeding. Five minutes later we heard Ares giving cackle-type alarm calls from somewhere in the canyon. Astrid didn’t seem to get upset. At the time she was busy alternating between shading and brooding. At 4:40 Ares came to the box and asked to take over shading duties. A few minutes later she let him. At 5:10 she was back with food. And then, just like the previous day, Astrid proceeded with a feeding while Ares remained in the box casting shade on the chicks. He did it through the entire meal and continued even after Astrid had finished and left the nest. It was an amazing example of cooperation (yet another example) between these two birds. We need to verify this with our records, but we couldn’t recall them doing this in previous years. At 5:39 Astrid returned to the box and this time tried to take over on the clutch. Ares was still shading and seemed to want to continue. She started brooding and eventually he got the hint and left. After he was gone, she switched to shading and continued with that until after 7:00 PM. Ares was up and down from the State Building during that time and perhaps making hunting forays. He came to the crossperch at 6:54. She let him take over the clutch a few minutes later. He then stayed in the box shading until Astrid was back at 7:16 PM. The falcons appeared to be done for the night. Goodnight all.

Here are some videos from the Little Falls falcon nest: