the new nestling’s feathers had dried off and it appeared cottony-white like its sibling. At 2 PM, Astrid was back at the box with food. She conducted a feeding of the older chick. The newly hatched nestling was still too uncoordinated to handle vying for food. At one point it toppled onto its back and was unable to right itself for several minutes. The size difference between the two nestlings was very great and we wondered if the smaller one would be able to successfully compete for food with its giant nestmate. As it happened, in the succeeding days, there would be no additional hatches, and there remained a stark size difference in the two chicks. All fears aside, the smaller nestling got more than an adequate amount of food. Time and time again, when Astrid conducted feedings, she took care to feed the smaller one. With more than enough nutrition, both nestlings developed quickly and by the time they were two weeks old, they had become ambulatory in the nest. They were also showing the beginning of dark flight feathers emerge from their white wings and tails. As expected, Ares was bringing a great variety of prey species back to the nest. Interestingly, the prey he brought back told us where he been hunting. One day he brought back a Virginia Rail which is a denizen of cattail marshes; another day he brought back a Solitary Sandpiper and then a Least Bittern. These were all birds most likely caught at the Utica Marsh, which is less than a mile away from the downtown canyon and well within Astrid and Ares’ territory. For most of the period the young are in the nest, it is Ares’ job to provide food for the family. However, when it comes to doing the actual feeding of the chicks, that job falls to Astrid. In recent years that strict gender-based task assignment seemed to erode and Astrid was letting Ares get in an increasing number of feedings. However, for whatever reason, this year she seemed to backtrack, and she didn’t allow him to do any feedings until the chicks were over two weeks old. It is true that female falcons are control freaks and Astrid is certainly no exception. Given the persistent presence of interlopers in the territory and the constant construction work going on in the canyon, Astrid’s response was to exert what control she had over her nest and family. Unfortunately, for Ares, that additional control seemed to come at his expense. I should add here that male Peregrines love to feed nestlings. They don’t typically do it as well as the females, but they do enjoy the process. On May 17th, in the late morning, we heard Ares’s cries ringing through the canyon. Astrid had done a feeding not long before and was absent from the nest. Ares stopped at the box
Zeus and Xena start to explore beyond the nest
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