Wing Beats?
This from Dan Cozza: “Hope you are keeping busy. I feel left out of this season as I can not keep tabs on the prison birds. I do look at the west side every time I am outside, and I see nothing, no activity at all. Not even increase whitewash on the side or sidewalk. Did they take this year off, or are you sure there are young this year?”
Man, I’m with you, Dan. It’s been hard to watch these guys this year and I am really missing the perfect look at the nest I had last year. If they nest in the north niche again next year (here’s really hoping), I promise to never bitch about the lighting over there again.
And I can guarantee that both adults are in the area and actively going in and out of the northernmost west-facing niche with food a lot, even if I can’t guarantee 100% that there are chicks up there. I’ve got to go with Mary on this one, though. The adults are consistently displaying all the behavior that signals chicks in the nest. So, I just have to believe they’ve got some young up there.
Ok, so on with the show.
Sadly, I have no peregrine pictures tonight. I did see Herc and Max, both this morning and this evening. It has been extremely windy here and both adults seemed to be engaged in a lot of high speed air current surfing, much to my dismay. I swear to God, I thought one of them was going to go smack into a building. But, they really looked to be having fun, so what are you gonna do?
Throughout the day, I wandered over to the MCC to walk the perimeter and check the ledges for chicks. Although I did not see any chicks today, I did see plenty of feather debris puffing up from inside the northernmost niche. I could see both adults in the sky each of those times, so I know it wasn’t them. The wind, while blowing very hard, was blowing from the opposite direction, so I doubt it was gusting in and throwing the feathers up. If so, it would have been doing so in other niches as well – I’m sure they aren’t pristine. Just to be sure, I stood in various places right under the niches to see what sort of air currents might be traveling up the side of the building. Nada.
I really think the chick(s) were kicking up the debris while exercising their wings. I saw a lot of this last year in the days before they finally popped up on the ledge. I would think we should see them any day now, if Herc and Max are following a similar schedule to other birds in the area.
I can’t wait!!
Chicago Peregrine Falcon Blog 