The overnight was quiet with no feedings. The temperature was in the low sixties. Morning was warm and partly cloudy with temps reaching 70 degrees by noon. Afternoon was hot with a high of 80 degrees. The wind did give some relief. Astrid was on the steeple until late last night and Ares was on the north face of the State Building. At some point she came to the nest. At 3:20 AM we noticed that it was Ares guarding the nest from the crossperch and she had taken a perch on the hotel. She was probably hunting. By 5:00 she had moved to the State Building. At 5:27 the parents switched, Astrid came to the nest to check on the chicks and Ares flew off into the canyon. At 5:29 Astrid found a chunk of food in the box and started feeding it out to the nestlings. Likely that hunk had been stolen by one of the chicks during an earlier feeding. At 5:46 Astrid was on the steeple. At 7:21 Ares brought prey to the nest. Astrid took it and carried out a feeding. Since the male chick was being fed first, the female tried biting off pieces of food for herself. It wasn’t working that well and so she soon reverted to letting Astrid feed her. The meal was over by 7:32. Thirty minutes later Astrid was on the east veranda. At 8:26 Astrid came to the nest with food. She proceeded to feed it to the nestlings. The feeding was over at 8:36 and Astrid went out onto the crossperch. As it happened, she was in the firing line of one of the chicks. Astrid collected some whitewash on her wing but seemed to take it in stride.
By 8:48 AM Astrid was up on the roof of the nestbox. It was unlikely that anyone was going to be in that office on a Sunday, so her intention was more precautionary that reactive. At 9:22 Ares came to the box to do a chick check. The nestlings immediately began squealing. At 9:34 both parents were in guard positions at the box. He left at 10:10 and she went back up on the roof of the nestbox. At 10:44 we heard Ares screeched through the canyon. Did he have prey? If so, he wasn’t showing up at the nest with it. A few minutes later one of the chicks was giving an insistent cackle call. Astrid came to the crossperch to see what was happening. At 11:53 Astrid was once again on the roof of the nestbox. Ares then screeched to the long perch and Astrid took off. At 12:16 PM she was back on the steeple. A few minutes later he came to the nest and got the chicks really squealing. At 12:19 Ares was trying to come into the box but one of the chicks kept biting at his bill and trying to get him to feed her. He came in only to leave just as fast. He did two more chick-checks just like that one in the subsequent hour. At 1:43 Ares brought a Black billed Cuckoo to the crossperch. Astrid blasted over to the box, grabbed the cuckoo and conducting a raucous feeding session. The meal was over at 1:53 and Astrid was out. At a few minutes before 2:00 both parents were on the steeple. At 2:30 they were cackling about something – probably a non-falcon intruder was traversing the canyon. At 4:00 Ares came to the box to do a chick check. He then stayed to do some shading. By that time in the afternoon the sun was flooding into the box and the temperature was close to 80 degrees. Twenty minutes later Astrid was in the box shading and then at 4:35 Ares was back on parasol duty. At 5:29 Astrid returned to the nest with prey. She conducted the feeding. Ten minutes later the meal was over, and she was out. At 7:00 Astrid was back on the roof of the box and the steeple after that. Ares brought more prey at 7:25 PM. Astrid grabbed it away, hopped into the box, and handled the feeding. This would probably be the last feeding of the day, but don’t quote us on that. Goodnight all.