Not all males bring food to the nest, in fact it isn't unusual for males to leave food nearby for their mate. We've been used to a number of our males bringing food right to the box - then Ivy realized he wasn't going to get any time with the kids so he would make Princess leave. Smiley is even more proactive - he was using food to entice Princess into the nestbox to check out his scrape this year. I never saw Beau bring food into the horrible nest site in West Winnipeg - Jules always left to get it from him, often right in mid-air beside the building. Hart leaves food nearby for Jules too. And Simba was probably our most invisible male - only saw him when he and Madame were copulating. He was very good at keeping the larder stocked but wasn't into being very hands-on with the kids.
According to the rersearch, the chances of a female managing to keep chicks this young fed and warm is statistically impossible. I've seen the nestsite location and it takes time to hunt, catch (remember falcons like all predators miss more than they catch) and prep a meal for transport and feeding. All of which is time taken away from the chicks who at this stage are defenseless and unable to thermoregulate. Average hunting success rate is about 23% (23 out of 100 hunts are successful) - for resident pairs on their breeding territories in the breeding season (i.e., when they are motivated to hunt successfully) it is a bit better than that (39%). But that still means that they miss half the time under ideal conditions - a female on her own trying to provide food for herself and her chicks as well as all her other duties and personal needs is fighting a battle she likely can't win. If the chicks were older, she would need to hunt for bigger appetites but they wouldn't need her at the nest so much.
Upshot is, as ineffectual and useless as whichever male is around at the moment, he may not actually be totally uninvolved in the raising of the chicks, just uninterested in the chicks themselves. Remember these birds are hardwired to raise young and if the male around is not the "father" he may be hormonally playing a bit of catch up. Or he could be inexperienced - Hart last year looked like a disaster, but he wasn't. Only time will tell how she, he and their chicks will make out.
Interestingly a raptor scientist in the US was just asking if anyone has any reports of lone parents being able to successfully raise chicks - so far I don't think he has received any affirmative reports.
