The overnight was warm with temperatures in the mid 60’s. During the day the temps rose quickly and by mid afternoon it was close to 90 degrees. Astrid was close to the nest for most of the night. Ares brought a small prey item at 3:05 AM. Astrid took it and flew off into the darkness. She brought it to the hotel and made it her breakfast. At 5:09 Astrid was on the long perch and Ares was on the east veranda. At 5:16 Astrid hopped up onto the box roof. That got the chicks squealing. At 5:18 Astrid found some unutilized prey on the floor of the box. She had it for only seconds before the female chick stole it from her and took it to the corner. Astrid soon had it back and the first thing she did was to tear off pieces and feed it to the female chick. Meanwhile the male nestling was having a one-man wing flapping fest. He then bit at Astrid’s tail as she was leaving. A couple of minutes the female chick became more animated and both were flapping their wings like mad. At 5:33 Astrid was on the State Building and Ares was on the steeple. At 5:56 Ares brought prey to the nest and handed it to Astrid inside the box. Astrid started out by feeding only the female, but the male eventually pushed his way in and got fed. At 6:11 the female nestling was trying to bring up a pellet. At 6:19 both falcon adults were perched close to each other on the County Building. Fifteen minutes later they were both up. At 6:51 Ares brought food to the east veranda. Astrid took it and flew away from the nest area. She boomeranged back to the nest and started a feeding. At 9:11 one of the chicks backed up and onto the lip of the box and eliminated. It appeared to trip while balancing on the box lip but came down into the box and was fine. Astrid seemed intrigued about what happened. She hopped onto the crossperch and then went into the box. She seemed to be looking for something. She kept looking down. We wondered if Ares had food and they dropped it during transfer, but the video showed that wasn’t the case. Ares hadn’t been there. Was it possible Astrid saw the chick’s whitewash fall and thought it was something else? Or did she see the chick momentarily balancing on the lip of the box and thought that they were trying to master the crossperch. Astrid wasn’t just looking down; she was dancing along the crossperch like she was in demonstration mode. Well, it’s too early for that kind of stuff!
At 9:34 AM Ares was back with food. Astrid grabbed it from him and fed the chicks. At 10:22 he brought more food and, once again, she fed it out to the nestlings. At a few minutes before noon Ares came to the box to do a chick check. He found all to be in order and he left with the chicks squealing after him. By 12:30 PM Astrid was standing guard over the nest on the east veranda. At 1:24 Ares was in the box providing shade. It was hot – nearly 90 degrees, but the box wasn’t entirely flooded with sunlight yet. At 1:55 Astrid was on the steeple. Wind was buffeting the camera – otherwise we hadn’t noticed it was so windy. At 2:03 Ares was in the box again and checking on the chicks. A few minutes later Astrid brought some food in and started a feeding. Likely she wanted to get a feeding in before the hottest time in the afternoon. Typically, the parents refrain from providing meals when the chicks are too hot. At 3:18 Astrid was inside the box providing shade for the nestlings. They weren’t really taking advantage of it but perhaps they appreciated the company. Ares took over at 4:10 but he didn’t stay for long. He returned at 4:46 and provided shade during the worst part of the afternoon when the sun was infiltrating most of the box. Of course, the chicks were in the corner, and he was mostly casting shade on one of the eggs, but that’s OK – he was providing moral support. At 5:43 Astrid took over as the peregrine parasol. She was diligent enough to shade both eggs while the chicks made their own arrangements. At 6:07 PM Ares brought prey to the nest. Astrid took it and did a feeding. At 6:35 Astrid upped Ares from his perch on the lower steeple – her not too subtle way of telling him to go out and get some food. At 7:45 Astrid was guarding the nest from the east veranda. The chicks were getting a little restless by 8:00. We think they were hoping for another mealtime. As of 8:45 PM no more feeding were forthcoming. Perhaps that would be it for the night. Goodnight falcons.