Reports from Deborah this morning say that we have two chicks in Evanston!
Waukegan Babies
•April 30, 2010 • Comments Off on Waukegan BabiesLast night, I watched the Waukegan web cam until it got too dark to see. I thought I saw maybe a hint of white fluff indicating a chick, but then realized it had been a trick of the gloom. Still all eggs in the nest.
I got in to work to find an email from Mary saying that she’d checked the camera at first light of morning and a chick had hatched!
It looks like the Waukegan nest takes the prize for first hatching again this year. Those are some early birds!
MCC Nesting
•April 17, 2010 • Comments Off on MCC NestingGracen met me at the MCC this morning at 7:30am for her second time watching the prison birds. We started off on the ‘el platform, but all was quiet in the area around the nesting niche. After some time, I decided we should wander over to the garage top to get a better view of the area in hopes of seeing one or both adults out and about. I have to admit, after the fight we saw earlier in the week, I was really, really hoping we’d see two healthy birds.
As we reached the Clark street intersection, we spotted an adult high on the corner of the EPA building. The familiar cloud of feathers surrounding the bird signaled high-speed plucking after a successful hunt.
South Loop Nest Cam
•April 16, 2010 • Comments Off on South Loop Nest CamThe South Loop nest cam is now live. The good folks at 1130 bought a sweet camera setup that even has nightvision. I think it will be a ton of fun to watch. While we were there, we also put a few bags of nice, clean pea gravel under the eggs. We seem to catch Mr. M. on the nest every time we go up. I wonder if he does more incubating since he has the gnarled leg? Anyway, made me happy that the scrape is now up out of water and more comfortable. The building is talking about a nest box for next season.
Loyola Nest?
•April 15, 2010 • Comments Off on Loyola Nest?At 11am this morning, Mary, Matt and I went to meet with Deborah at the Loyola campus. We hoped to find the peregrines that have been frequenting the campus since 2007.
In 2008, I wrote a post about taking my mother up to scout the campus on a freezing cold, but sunny day, in May. We found a juvenile molting into adult plumage hanging out on the science building who had black over green bands, possibly with a “5” as the top number. We also found an adult that was unbanded. Although the two birds were hanging out in close association with one another, they never really interacted, so we couldn’t really determine whether they were nesting. We did see them close enough together, however, to note that the molting adult was smaller, so probably male. In 2009, two adults were spotted frequently. Deborah and a Loyola biology professor were able to get a really good look at one of the birds, the larger of the two (so probably female), and saw black over green bands with a very clear “5” on top and an unreadable bottom band. I got a couple of pictures of both adults hanging out together on the top of Mundelin. The big news came later in the season from Deborah, when she reported seeing the two copulate once in early March. We all kept watch on the campus, but a nesting site was never identified, nor were there any unbanded, immature peregrines flying around.
MCC Fight
•April 14, 2010 • Comments Off on MCC FightThis year, I am happy to report we have a few new monitor volunteers, including my co-worker in Insects, Gracen B. and her roommate (and volunteer in Birds) Kasey. Today, after work, I took Gracen to the MCC with me for her inaugural monitoring session.
Unfortunately, Gracen was in New York the weekend of the monitor’s seminar, so she missed Mary’s detailed course. So, on our walk from the museum to the MCC, I gave her the abbreviated version. We took a few minutes to look at the South Loop pair’s territory and spotted one of them sitting on a pole adjacent to their new nesting area.
When we got to the garage top by the MCC, I spotted one of the adults and asked Gracen to look around and see if she could spot it. She did, quite quickly, which was a good sign. It was sitting on the corner of a building to the west of the nest niches, apparently munching the last bits of a bird.
Magnificent Mile, now with more Magnificence!
•April 12, 2010 • Comments Off on Magnificent Mile, now with more Magnificence!We have a new pair in the area! Currently, they are sitting on four eggs. Mary and I met with the building and went up to try to get the adult ID’s, but the female wouldn’t stand up and show off her gams and the male wouldn’t come down out of the sky!
We’ll be going back up this Thursday, so with any hope, I’ll have ID’s for the curious then. At any rate, welcome to Chicago Mag Milers!
South Loop Camera?
•April 12, 2010 • Comments Off on South Loop Camera?Mary made her first visit to the south loop pair — Helen & Mr. M. The building tells us that they plan to put a web cam up, which is VERY exciting news. As soon as I have a url, I’ll post it.
For now, looks like all is well for the sloopers. They are incubating away and looking healthy and happy.
2010 Peregrine Monitor Symposium
•April 10, 2010 • Comments Off on 2010 Peregrine Monitor Symposium
Late last year, Mary had the great idea to have an early season symposium in 2010 for all of the nest monitors. Great idea! She put together a spectacular program in two parts. In the first part, she talked about peregrine identification, site selection and the details or our area birds. In the second part, she spoke about behavior and answered questions.
Everyone also got the chance to meet Denver and Molly, Mary’s male Red-tailed Hawk and female Peregrine Falcon, which was the big hit of the day for most in attendance. For me, and this is NO knock on Denver and Molly, whose company I am always pleased to keep, but for me the highlight was watching the monitor groups get to know one another as they talked over their particular territories. In fact, there were some monitors who watch the same territory who’d never run into one another! With any hope, a few new friendships formed. At any rate, looking over the audience, it became clear to me how lucky we are here in Chicago to have such a great group of people dedicated to making sure this population flourishes.
Oh, another highlight, Matt brought his son Sean, who I genuinely like and not just because he has a kick-ass name. It was Sean’s 14th birthday today, so Sean — Happy Birthday! Hope you had some cheesecake this time.
My Usual Apologies
•April 10, 2010 • Comments Off on My Usual ApologiesHi all,
Ok, I realize it’s been a long, long time since an update. My bad. I am popping in to assure you that I’m on it. I’m going to write an update regarding today’s festivities and then backtrack and fill in. When I get all caught up, I’m going to treat myself with deleting this post and, possibly, a nice chocolately cookie! Mmmm… cookie first.
Chicago Peregrine Falcon Blog 