The overnight was balmy with temps in the 70’s. After daybreak the air warmed quickly, attaining near 80 degrees by noon and the high eighties by mid-afternoon. Fortunately, there was more of a breeze today that helped give some relief. Astrid switched between being on the crossperch and bring inside the box for much of last evening. However, by 12:22 Ares was on the long perch and Astrid was on the State Building. He doesn’t often get tasked with late night chick-sitting, so this was unusual. Ares brought prey to the box at 2:20 AM. Astrid took it and conducted the first morning feeding. At 5:34 Ares screeched to the nestbox. She was on the State Building at the time. Five minutes later he was gone, and she was on the crossperch. At 5:46 Ares brought food to the long perch, but then took off with it before Astrid could accept it. Astrid was in the box at that time. She left the nest and fetched Ares back. This time she took the prey and proceeded to feed the nestlings. When the meal was finished, she went back to brooding. At 6:17 we noticed that Ares was up on the roof of the Adirondack bank Building. Perhaps he was using the lamp post he was on as a hunting perch. At 6:43 both falcons were up – perhaps coordinating a chase. A few minutes later he screeched to the box. He left when she came inside to brood ten minutes later. She then went back and forth between brooding and perching on the crossperch. At 8:22 she went up onto the roof of the nestbox. That could only mean that she was concerned about activity in the offices around the nest site. At 8:56 she was back to the crossperch. Two minutes later Ares arrived with food. Astrid accepted it and commenced a feeding. At 9:06, after the meal was over, Astrid flew into the canyon and Ares gave a long call. This time it was him switching between brooding and perching on the crossperch.
At 9:22 AM Astrid was back at the nest and Ares was out of view. At 9:35 she hopped up onto the box roof again. Twenty minutes later she was back to switching between the crossperch and brooding inside the nest. At 11:41 Ares brought a goldfinch to the nest. Astrid accepted it and carried out a feeding. During the meal we noticed how the chicks now have obvious crops and they were looking quite full. At 11:50 the feeding was done, and Astrid flew out into the canyon. At a few minutes before noon, she was back and on the roof of the nestbox. While up there she gave dirty looks to the office windows. At 12:42 PM she was back to watching the nest area from across the canyon on the State Office Building. Ares came to the box a few minutes later and shifted back and forth between brooding the chicks and being on the crossperch. At 1:46 it was Astrid’s turn in the box. The afternoon was heating up and the sun was increasingly invading the box. Still, it wasn’t too bad yet. She switched between shading and standing out on the crossperch. At around 2:48 Ares brought prey to the nest. Astrid took it and handled the feeding. At 3:06 Ares was taking a turn shading. The sun was now flooding most of the box. Ares worked hard to shade the two chicks and he occasionally let the eggs go uncovered. This is the first time this season that they have showed signs of halting their care of the eggs. At 4:18 Ares gave a cackle-type alarm call from the nest. Probably some passing raptor or vulture was the cause.
Just before 5:00 PM Astrid came to the nest and unceremoniously displaced Ares by pulling the chicks over to her. He stayed for a few minutes, casting shade on nothing, and then he left. The contrast between the shading techniques of the two adults is interesting. Ares passively shades the whole time he is on duty, while Astrid shades for a certain amount of time and then actively shuffles the chicks and makes them move. Sometimes her shuffling seems rather rough but keeping the chicks moving is obviously an important part of keeping them from overheating. At one point Astrid was only shading one of the chicks. The other was against the wall. She then adeptly grabbed it and moved it underneath her with the shoulder of her wing. It was a kind of scooping action. Sometimes she uses her bill to pick them up, but we didn’t see her do that today. One of the eggs was left uncovered for a little while and then, at one point Astrid noticed it and started shading it with her fanned tail. At 6:34 Ares came to the nest with a Blue Jay. Astrid took it and immediately began plucking it. She then started serving it to the chicks, but they weren’t really interested. After only giving one chick a couple of bites she flew out of the nest the rest. Ares came into shade after she left. At 7:03 Astrid was back with the jay. Ares left when she came in to start the feeding. When the feeding was over, she left, and Ares came back. She took over from him for the last time at 8:32. Initially she was brooding but then moved out onto the crossperch. Goodnight all.
Little Falls Falcon Update:
The Little Falls chicks are now ambulatory on their nest ledge!