The overnight was relatively mild with rain and thunderstorms ending in the late evening. Astrid remained on the long perch through much of it and became drenched. The daytime saw partly cloudy skies and temps topping out in the mid-70’s. It remained breezy all day. There were no overnight feedings. She left the crossperch at 2:00 AM and was on the State Building along with Ares before 5:00. At 5:00 she left her windowsill perch and came to the nestbox. She checked around the floor of the box for scraps but found nothing. The female nestling crowded her and made it difficult for her to navigate in the box. She finally chased her mother out. Astrid was on the steeple for a while and then she flew over to the hotel. She appeared to be in hunting mode. At 6:14 Ares was plucking a Mourning Dove on the hotel. Astrid was standing by waiting for him to bring it to the nest. Meanwhile one of the chicks was trying to bring up a pellet. At 6:19 Ares brought over the meal. Astrid took it and started a feeding session. It lasted about nine minutes which was pretty good considering how ravenous the chicks were. After the meal both chicks did some impressive wing flapping and tearing around in the box. Both parents were on the State Building at that point. At 8:27 Astrid brought prey to the nest and carried out a feeding. It went on for at least ten minutes. After the meal Astrid spent some time on the roof of the box guarding the family against threats from office windows. At 10:46 we heard the parents giving cackle-type alarm calls. Both were on the State Building shortly after, and so they probably didn’t need to chase after anything. When Astrid left the State Building both chicks squealed. They pay very close attention to their parents’ movements in the canyon. They react to their parents flying by and by them leaving and arriving at perches. At 10:55 Ares brought a cuckoo to the east veranda. Astrid barged over to take it, and flew away with it. After about 30 seconds she came into the box with it. She started feeding it out but then only a couple of minutes into the meal she abruptly grabbed the prey and flew out with it. At about 11:05 Ares was on a light pole perch on the roof of the bank and Astrid soon showed up on the steeple. At 11:39 Astrid buzzed by Ares and then flew to the box. He made a quick visit to the box only a minute later.
At 11:41 AM Astrid brought prey to the nest and conducted a feeding. It lasted about eight minutes. At noon the male nestling backed up onto the lip of the box to eliminate. Astrid was on the steeple at 12:17 PM and Ares was on the State Building. She came onto the box roof at 12:34. At 1:22 PM Astrid brought prey to the nest and did a feeding. At 1:49 Astrid was giving cackle-type alarm calls. She left her perch and likely scrambled to chase something out of the territory. At 2:37 Ares stopped at the box for a chick check. He screeched into the box for another one at 3:42. Five minutes later he started giving chirping-type alarm calls. He launched into the canyon but then was seen along with Astrid on the State Building a short time later. If an intruder Peregrine was the cause of the alarm, A&A certainly weren’t bothered by it for very long. At 4:04 Astrid came to the roof of the nestbox. Ares was in the box offering shade to the nestlings at 4:20. The pair didn’t seem interested in utilizing his shade. He came back to shade a few more times in the subsequent couple of hours. At 6:43 Astrid came to the box with prey. She probably got it from Ares’ pantry of from the man himself. At 7:30 PM Ares brought prey to the east veranda. Astrid came over to take it and then she fed the chicks. It was likely their last meal for the night. Astrid spent some time on the steeple after that. She finally came to the box at close to 9:00 PM. Goodnight all.
I didn’t know that falcons bring up pellets – I only knew this about owls.