The overnight was cool with temperatures in the low forties. The day was sunny and breezy with high temperatures in the low 70’s. Astrid was on the long perch for part of the overnight and then she was out of view for quite a while. At 1:36 AM Ares came to the nest with a small item. He started tearing into it while on the lip of the box. When Astrid didn’t show up, he hopped into the nest and tried to interest the chicks in taking it from him. The whole time he seemed overly conscious of the fact that Astrid might come in at any second and take over. He ripped off a piece and fed it to one of the chicks and then he dropped the food and left. At 5:01 Ares brought more prey to the nest. Astrid took it and did a feeding. Initially Kara was the only one eating. Percy held back and waited patiently for his turn. Several minutes into the meal he finally started vying and was able to get a few bites. At 5:23, after the meal was over, the chicks did some wing flapping and lots of moving around in the box. They were flapping so much at one point that their cast-off white down feathers were billowing out of the box. At 7:07 Ares brought a small prey item to the nest. Astrid commandeered it and handled the feeding. This time she started out by only feeding Percy. By 7:14 Astrid was done with the feeding. At 8:08 she was up on the roof of the nestbox. It being Sunday, there shouldn’t be anyone in that office, so we weren’t sure what she was getting upset about. Ares stopped at the nest to do a chick-check at 8:42 – it was a quick in and out. At 10:20 the parent falcons were on their guard positions – Ares on the east veranda and Astrid on the roof of the nest box.
At 12:25 PM Astrid stopped at the nest to do a chick check. A few minutes later both parents were on the State Office Building. She did another quick check on the chicks just before 1:00 PM. At 1:32 Astrid and Ares had been out of view for a while. When one of them flew through and landed back on the State Building, Kara and Percy saw them and began squealing. Astrid then came over to the box to do a chick check and that got the two nestling even more excitedly calling. At 2:51 Astrid arrived at the box with prey. The chicks were very eager to feed. Both were vying and crowding Astrid as she tried to rip off pieces for them. The meal was done in about eight minutes. The next chick check took place at 4:12. We are not sure which parent came over. At 4:44 we heard Ares giving long calls from somewhere in the canyon. Kara and Percy enthusiastically squealed back. At 5:13 PM Astrid had a freshly caught Pigeon on the hotel ledge. She went about plucking it and then took a share off the top. Ares then arrived on the steeple and both nestlings started calling. The kids knew something was up. At 5:25 Astrid arrived at the nest with a chunk of the Pigeon, and she proceeded to conduct a feeding. Kara was first in line to be fed and while she ate, her brother patiently waited his turn in the corner of the box. About five minutes into the feeding Percy came up to have his share. Astrid noticed and began serving him. Interestingly, she started feeding him in fast motion. Honestly, it looked like someone sped up the video! That bird has a startling amount of energy. Once the feeding was done at 5:52 Astrid moved to the long perch and Kara started doing some wing exercising. At 6:11 Ares landed on a west window ledge with prey. He plucked it for a while. Meanwhile Astrid was on the crossperch, occasionally giving low donkey calls. Of course, Ares noticed that she wasn’t coming over to collect his offering. She seemed to be indicating to him that he should store it and perhaps that’s what he did. A little later he was on the lower steeple perch, and Astrid was out of view. At about 7:10 PM Ares arrived at the east veranda with fresh prey. Astrid came out of nowhere to take it. She flew off with it – possibly to store it? She went to the steeple after that, and Ares remained on the veranda. Were the falcons done for the night? Maybe not; Percy was doing some serious wing flapping after 8:00 PM. Goodnight all.