The overnight was warm and dry with temperatures in the low sixties. It was 80 degrees by early afternoon and close to 90 degrees after that. Astrid spent much of the night in the vicinity of the nestbox. Ares came to the nest with food at 3:00 AM. Astrid took, but instead of feeding it to the nestlings she flew over to the hotel and made it her own early breakfast. By 3:15 she was back to the crossperch and guarding the nestbox again. At 4:04 Ares was back with more food. Astrid grabbed it but then lost it to one of the chicks who snatched it and put it in the corner of the box. At 5:02 Astrid recovered the meal and fed it out to the chicks. She then spent some time on the crossperch – guarding. When she left the nestlings had a wing-flapping festival. At 6:37 Ares brought what looked like a cuckoo to the nest. Astrid took it and doled it out to the chicks. The meal was done at 6:43 and Astrid was out. By 7:00 she was on the steeple and Ares was on the east veranda. At 7:53 Astrid hopped onto the roof of the nestbox. It’s Memorial Day but someone might just show up in the office and if they do she aims to keep them in line. At 8:53 Astrid brought prey to the box. it was something fairly small and most likely it came from Ares’ pantry. She proceeded to feed the chicks. At 9:18 Ares brought what appeared to be a Starling to the east veranda. Astrid took it and conducted a feeding. For the first half of the meal one of the chicks was on the opposite side of the box and wasn’t vying for a share. That one later joined in. At 10:23 AM Astrid was back on the roof of the nestbox. At 10:30 Ares landed on the long perch and that served to make the nestlings squeal with excitement.
At 11:43 Ares was on the steeple and Astrid was on the west veranda. At 12:49 Ares came back to the nestbox. For the next hour or so Ares came into the box periodically and periodically he was stirring up the natives into a falcon frenzy. At 1:27 Astrid was perched on the upper steeple. The white fluffy material from Cottonwood was blowing around downtown – so much so that it sometimes looked like a snow flurry. At 1:36 Astrid came into the box for a chick check. Predicably, the nestlings were melting down with excitement. Meanwhile Ares landed on the same steeple perch that Astrid had just vacated. Only a minute later, Astrid began cackle-calling. She then abruptly launched after a vulture flying in the south part of the canyon. Ares joined her and they both put that poor bird through its paces, ushering it quickly to the north and out of the canyon. By 1:47 Ares was back on the State Building and Astrid was on the crossperch at the nestbox. Her bill was gapping, and she was holding her wings out at the shoulder. It was over 80 degrees, and she was hot. At 1:50 Astrid darted off into the canyon. She was back on the crossperch at 2:24, and from there it was back to the roof of the box. At 3:10 Ares was inside the box offering shade to the nestlings. The box was hot but not completely in the sun. The chicks whined and moved around a lot while Ares was there. By 4:15 he was out, and Astrid was on shading duty by 4:32. Just like with Ares, even though they had a parent providing shade, they weren’t so interested in using it. For the most part they preferred the corners of the box. At one point Astrid was shading the eggs. We hadn’t seen that behavior in a while. At 5:59 Ares brought prey to the long perch. Astrid took it and handled the feeding. At 6:40 Ares was back with another meal. Astrid took it from him on the east veranda, flew off into the canyon with it, and then barreled into the box to conduct the feeding. The feeding was done in under ten minutes and then Astrid was on the long perch. Ares was on the State Building until at least after 9:00 PM. Goodnight falcons.