The brand new Field Museum Peregrine Falcon page is up! You can find it here:
http://fieldmuseum.org/explore/illinois-peregrines
This means I’ll be scaling back on this site a lot, but I will still post little tidbits now and again.
Banding Cancelled and Deborah Press
•May 25, 2011 • Comments OffDarn it all, weather! [shakes fist at sky]
The Waukegan banding set for this morning has been called due to heavy storm activity. Poop. I had all my gear ziploced, triple garbage bagged and ready to go.
So, I’ll leave you with a really nice story about 2009 Evanston chick Deborah’s nest in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Make sure to check out her webcam!
Sloopy Nesting
•May 24, 2011 • Comments Off2009 Broadway female Sloopy — named in honor of the website Sloopin, who helped us get the word out to the area and track the south loop birds — is nesting! She and her mate are in Indiana at a lime plant. No word on the number of young, but I’ll keep you posted!
New Nest
•May 23, 2011 • Comments Off
Our team had its first banding of the season today and it went spectacularly. Recently, we’ve been getting calls from people reporting a new nesting site between our river birds and our south loop pair on Michigan. Mary and Matt made an appointment for us to take a look at the site from the building next door. Unfortunately, I couldn’t leave work that day, but they came back pretty excited. Not only was it a new nesting site, but there were two chicks and they looked to be a bit older than any other chicks in the area.
Finally, news from the garage top
•May 21, 2011 • Comments Off
The jailbirds have been so elusive and quiet this year, I was convinced that their nesting attempt had failed again. This morning, I spent two hours on the ‘el platform, watching the activity at the site. One of the birds was sitting on the NW niche edge when I arrived, but since I can’t use any equipment when I’m on the ‘el platform, I couldn’t try for leg bands. This is sad, because I could have had the bands easily from that vantage point.
River Birds, etc.
•May 20, 2011 • Comments OffBusy day today. Went to several sites, but here’s the interesting bits.
The river birds have again failed this year. The eggs were cold and two of them were broken. This is sad news, especially for their biggest supporter, Dave T., who sits at the desk nearest to the window overlooking the nest. Sometimes it takes a few years for a pair to be successful, so we’ll look forward to next year! Dave T., keep hope.
On to the quarry. We actually saw a quarry adult, but couldn’t get the bands. It is banded black over green. I had a moment of dismay when it looked as though the adult was going to kill one of two kestrels that were in the territory. It missed the kestrel, thankfully. Mary and I think the kestrels are also nesting in the area, so they may be getting on each other’s nerves if they both have chicks they are raising.
Lakeview Adult ID!
•May 17, 2011 • Comments Off
Try as we might, we’ve never gotten an ID from the Lakeview site, even though there have been birds there for years. This year, Mary and I met a man named Bob who lived in the building. We gave him our cards and chatted with him a bit. He knew about the birds and seemed eager to help if he could. A few days later, we received and email from Mergel Funsky, also a resident of the building and a friend of Bob’s. To our delight, he had pictures of one of the adults sitting on his balcony. To our extreme delight, the leg bands of said adult were readable. So, without further ado, let me introduce you to Lakeview’s adult female: Scruffy (b/g N/38), born 2007 at the Firstar Center in Milwaukee, WI. This is the same site that Evanston’s adult female, Nona, came from, although the two have different parents.
ABC 7
•May 10, 2011 • Comments OffABC 7 aired a really nice story last night. You can see it here: ABC 7 Peregrine Story.
Mary was really excited to meet Ron Magers and said he was just as nice in person as he appears on the news.
Tune back in for exciting news from a helpful soul up by the Lakeview site!
