The overnight was once again very mild with temperatures in the 60’s. By early afternoon temperatures were in the in the mid-80’s. As far as we know Astrid was close to the nest or in the nest most of the night. The moon was nearly full, and we think that Ares may have used it to hunt by. He brought prey to the box at 2:10 AM, 3:06, 3:54, and 4:12. Only the 3:54 food delivery was refused, and that food was probably stored. At 5:10 we saw that Ares was on the State Building. He was up again an hour later. Meanwhile Astrid was alternating between being on the nest and being on the crossperch. At 7:50 she was on the crossperch, and he was on the long perch. At 10:02 he brought prey to the nest area. Astrid took it from him on the east veranda, flew off, boomeranged back to the box, and conducted a feeding. At 10:38 Ares came to the box with more food. Astrid handled the feeding. At a few minutes before 11:00 we noticed that Ares was on his pillar. A few minutes later Astrid was on the roof of the box – irritated with people in an office adjacent to the nest. At 11:21 Ares screeched to the nextbox. Apparently, he had brought a scrap of food. Astrid took it and did the feeding.
At 12:22 PM Ares was inside the nestbox. Fifteen minutes later they switched, and Ares took over brooding and guarding duties. The switches were happening more often than usual this afternoon. The pair switched again only 15 minutes later. Astrid took over – still alternating between shading and guarding from the crossperch. Ares was on the steeple at 12:56. Astrid left the box at 1:08 but came right back. Did she order Ares to retrieve some prey? Both falcons were at the box at 1:30. The sun was not completely flooding the box at that point. At 1:32 the chicks had moved to opposite sides of the box – showing that they were quite ambulatory now. At a few minutes before 2:00 Astrid had gathered them up and was shading them – also occasionally shuffling them. At 4:30 she had food and was doing a feeding. Ares probably brought it, but we were unable to confirm that with the video. He was on the steeple at that point. Astrid flew off with the leftovers since she wasn’t able to interest the chicks in having more than a couple of bites. Ares came in right after she left and resumed shading. By this point the sun was almost filling the box. They switched at 4:45 and then Astrid was on duty again. They switched again at around 5:05 and then, two minutes later, they switched one more time. At 6:13 he screeched to the nest box just after she moved to the west veranda. It had suddenly become overcast and windy in the downtown canyon. At 6:24 she was in, and he was out. Light rain began falling at 6:25 PM. She was out at 6:53 and he came in two minutes later. At 7:00 she was doing another feeding. She was finished five minutes later and went out to the crossperch. At 7:34 she was feeding them once again. Ares brought it and then he went to the west veranda. She was really stuffing them! Their crops were bulging and appeared to be as big as their heads. At this point, Astrid seemed in place for the night – or at least, reasonably in place. She continued switching between the box and the crossperch until quite late. Goodnight all.
Thank you for your updates!