Author: Matt Perry

Ares arrived at the nest box at around 6:15 AM. Astrid arrived on the north face of the State Building at around the same time. About 15 minutes later he dashed off after prey. He returned a short while later with a bat in his talons. As far as we know, this was the first bat of the season. Unfortunately, the bat was still alive, but Ares dispatched in within a minute. We believe his plan was to gift it to Astrid, but she showed no interest in coming over to accept it. Instead, she stayed right where she was. We learned long ago that Astrid is no fan of bat flesh. Ares left with the catch and probably stored it somewhere. A few minutes later he came back to the box without the food. Given the unseasonably mild temperatures today (with temps in the 60’s), Ares seemed especially keen to get Astrid over to the box. He made several visits over the next two hours, but she wasn’t interested in coming over. At about 8:30, Ares gave some alarm calls from the box, but they were somewhat subdued calls, so we weren’t that concerned. Ten minutes later two falcons were performing a ledge display at the nest box. The “dance” was atypical. It started with some raucous beaking and then Ares stood back while the female did fancy side-stepping moves in the center of the box. Soon the female moved out onto the box’s perch. It wasn’t Astrid! It was an unknown adult female Peregrine with markings similar to Astrid’s. One obvious difference was that she was a banded bird. She was acting like she owned the place – walking on the box’s perches, strutting out onto the east veranda, and at one point she even jumped up onto the roof of the box. All the while, Ares was peering at her from inside the box and Astrid was nowhere to be seen.

Why wasn’t she challenging this intruder? Normally she would be hazing such an audacious stranger. We didn’t know if Astrid had fought with this interloper or not. When I went down there about an hour later I saw three Peregrines zooming around in the canyon’s airspace. The winds were particularly strong today and the maneuvers of the falcons were quick and quite spectacular. The three were lightly sparring and it did seem as though it was Ares that was more aggressive in pursuing the intruder. I was very surprised that it wasn’t Astrid taking the lead since it was a female interloper. But for all I knew, Astrid had already done her share of persuading. Without any clear combat taking place, suddenly the stranger was gone and it was only our home pair diving and soaring through the canyon. At one point they converged at the box, but there was no ledge display. Instead Astrid took to the air again and spent a considerable amount of time scuttling the local Pigeon flock and putting on a one-falcon air show. After about 15 minutes, Ares left the box and joined her in the sky.

At noon, Ares was at the box again and after perching for while he abruptly issued some “kack” type alarm calls, but neither bird left their perches. He probably saw a raptor (maybe a migrant) way off in the distance, and possibly sailing on the strong winds. A half-hour later he flew up to Astrid who was perched on a high ledge on the State Building. He hovered over her for a few seconds as if mating, but there was no contact between them. At 2:00 PM, Ares brought an unrecognizable hunk of prey to the nest box. This time Astrid came right over and took it from him. She brought her gift over to the hotel and devoured it. Later the pair was seen perched near each other on the north face of the State Building. Will we see the intruder again? Perhaps. Since she is a banded falcon, we hope we can read the numbers off of her bands and find out where she came from. All we know now is that she came from a New York State nest site.

The last time that three juvenile Peregrines were seen in Downtown Utica was on July 27^th. Two days later Max was the only one left in canyon. The next thing we expected to happen was for Max to leave, but instead, Zander returned to the fold. The two sibling sparred and chased each other (and their parents), quite a bit. By August 2^nd, Max seemed to be the lone kid again. On August 3^rd, we were convinced that Max had left the area. We even made an announcement to that effect on our Utica Falcon Facebook page. Not only did Max reappear in the evening, but he had Zander with him. On Friday night the brothers were darting around the State Building, chasing each other and sparring like mad. High winds in the evening allowed them to fly especially fast. As for Astrid and Ares, they had been doing more and more ledge displays during the period when the kids were less of a presence in the canyon. However, when the young returned the parents reverted to keeping low profiles and even occasionally hiding. We fully expect that sometime soon they will have the canyon to themselves again, but don’t ask us to make a prediction about when that will be. We’ve given up on doing that. At least for this year!

We’ve had one of our young Peregrines leave the fold since my last update. Luna, the smallest male, was last seen flying and sparring with his siblings on July 14^th. Although we don’t know for sure what has become of him, we have no evidence that he had been injured or killed. The incentive to leave the family is strong for a small male since he would have the hardest time obtaining food from the adults. More often than not, when he did get something he would lose it to one of his larger siblings. As of July 21^st we still have three juvenile Peregrines on their parent’s territory. They frequently return to the canyon where they hunt, spar, and make tremendous commotions. They are very loud birds! All three have been seen hunting. They do this alone and in teams. Sometimes they fly very low as they try to stir up prey. They are often out of our view, hunting on the outskirts of the territory. So far they all return to the canyon at least a few times a day and almost always by nightfall. The parents have been doing fewer ledge displays at the box just lately. They still spend a fair amount of their time keeping out of sight of the perpetually hungry gang of kids.

 

As I’m writing this update at 5:30 AM, I can see all four young Peregrine Falcons actively chasing each other around the State Office building. The heavy rain had just subsided and these guys were ready to go. About a half hour ago one of them had chased Astrid out of the nest box. Astrid and Ares have resumed performing ledge displays at the box, but more often than not, they are interrupted and chased out before they can finish. The youngsters have been hunting for themselves, but still continue to get prey from their parents whenever possible. They frequently pursue their parents and even up them from their perches. It has gotten to the point where Astrid and Ares spend a considerable amount of time hiding from their kids. However, evidently, they still seem to want them around. Last night when Spirit and one of her brothers were out hunting by the Mohawk River, Astrid came in and lured them back to the canyon with a meal. So far, every night the kids have been returning to the canyon and to their perches on the State Building.

Over the course of the last week, the four juvenile peregrines from the Utica nest continue to be seen daily. They are spending more time away from the canyon, but usually all of them return a few times a day. They have been spending most of their time testing their hunting abilities and on a few occasions they have been observed successfully securing prey. However, they still regularly pester their parents for food and their shrill begging calls are frequently heard echoing through Downtown. As they push to the outer boundaries of their parent’s territory, they have been able to experience different habitats and explore interactions with a wide variety of other species. They have been spending an increasing amount of time around the Mohawk River just lately. So far we have been very fortunate to be able to track them on some of their adventures and we hope to continue to as long as they remain in the region.