Head Cold & MCC Update from Gracen
Well, it had to happen. Peregrine season begins and so does allergy season, which means I’m headed for some sort of respiratory ailment. This time, I am VERY pleased to report, it is not tonsillitis, but rather a nasty head cold. So, I’m thankful, even though I had to stay home from work today AND miss a good peregrine monitoring weekend.
All was not lost, however, thanks to other monitors out doing their thing while I was home in bed with the sniffles. For one, we hear that the Pilsen chicks have started hatching. Excellent! For two, Gracen sent me a nice email with her Saturday observation notes from the MCC.
So, I spent a little over an hour out today (8-915am). I spent most of it on the ground and saw a decent amount of action. For a while, I was only seeing one bird perched on that red building across the platform of the CTA, but as it flew over to that tall black building (EPA?), I saw another flying with it, almost chasing it. One seemed to be following the other from building to building and they were kind of carelessly flying about around the jail stopping every once and a while to sit on a building (mostly the EPA). They kept flying west over the board of trade building and then I would temporarily lose them until they came back to the EPA (favoring the south west corner as usual). I walked west for a while to try and see what they were landing on, but when I was over there I didn’t see them at all.
I then went up on the garage to see if I could get a better view but didn’t see them for about 20 min until one flew east and perched kind of in the middle of that black building behind the brick building that is behind the garage. It sat there for a while and I couldn’t locate the other until saw what I think was the other (didn’t get a good look) fly behind the board of trade, seeming to perch on the west side, although I couldn’t see. Eventually the one on the black building flew and perched on the building north of the board of trade, that one with many tiers and has a statue on the top. There he started I believe what you call ‘echupping’ or whatever sound they make that kind of sounds like a laser gun. The other bird then started circling in the air and the one perched jumped off chasing it, occasionally returning to his perch on that gaudy building. They then flew around in the sky above the jail kind of circling each other for about 15/20 mins before I (this sounds romantic) lost them into the clouds and couldn’t relocate them, then had to go.
Hope this is helpful, sorry its so choppily written, but I’m running out the door and want to write you before I forgot all the details of my morning.
Wow, nicely done Gracen! So, there you go. It seems pretty likely that the MCC pair, whoever they are, are not nesting (yet?). I am really bummed out that I was so sick, I couldn’t go out in search of leg bands. That said, I’m not sure these two would come down close enough to get the bands anyway. But, I have to say, I am danged curious. Was there a nest turnover? Is this Max courting a new female? Is this Hercules? Hopefully, I’ll be able to figure that out.
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