Preston Kendall Sends Pictures
I had a treat waiting in my email box this morning from Preston Kendall:
“Steph – Dan Cozza from the EPA thought you might like some of my photos of the MCC birds. Here are six that I took on Monday. Preston Kendall”
Buh. Splutter. The pictures are gorgeous. I mean frameably gorgeous. I asked him if I could put them in my journal and he said, “I’d be honored.”
I think it might be a little okay that I feel as jealous as I do right now. It is, isn’t it?
It reminds me of the time, years ago, when a few friends and I began brewing our own beer as a summer hobby. We finally got a batch that a.) didn’t explode and b.) could actually be consumed without causing immediate gag reactions. Proudly, we took our beer to another friend who owned the Rogue Brewery in Oregon. He politely took a sip, wiped his mouth and said, “Wow! That…really, that…good try, you guys! You got a batch that didn’t explode! That’s a good first step!”
Then he let us try two of his award winning special brews. It made me wish our beer had exploded. Summer ended and so did the beer hobby.
Wait. I think my pictures of the falcons might be exploding. I should go check. Back now.
All self-deprecating humor aside, this is one hobby I’m not going to give up on just because I am an amateur. Bad beer – well, I just can’t stomach that. Bad pictures of beautiful falcons? I guess I’m pretty much A-OK with that one.
My super-secret garage spies tell me that Preston’s telephoto lens is somewhere between a foot and 7 feet long. A few of my super-secret garage spies have exaggeration problems, but I’ll take it on good faith that Preston has one heck of a long telephoto. And, well, everyone knows – at least when it comes to telephotos – size does matter.
Chick Development (from the literature): The chicks are almost fully feathered with traces of down on the crown of the head, under the wings and on the outer several remiges. The retrices are not fully grown, but the bird is capable of weak flight and will fledge around this time. Some fledge earlier, some later. Males generally fledge before females, because males are smaller. At any rate, this is a chick coming up on this stage of development.
Well, and so it went with us! The male chick was small and fledged before his sisters, at day 38.
Chicago Peregrine Falcon Blog 