Out with Matt

•April 8, 2010 • Comments Off on Out with Matt

Matt and I went out for a morning on the town. We stopped at Wacker first to do a check. The Wacker pair, Rahn and Joe, are currently incubating eggs, but Rahn didn’t get up to let us have a peek.

After that, off to UIC. We did a quick circuit of the bottom of the building first, looking for prey items. Matt found a really beautiful woodcock wing, so I put it in my pocket to take back to the museum.

[editorial note: I completely forgot about this wing until days later, our cats Puck and Hobbes were going NUTS trying to get my coat down off the coat rack. I chased them off, but they would not leave it alone. I thought maybe there was a spider or something, so I pulled it off the rack to check it out. That’s when I noticed my coat smelled a bit “off”. Yuck! I guess I’ll get it dry cleaned — my coat, not the wing]

UIC is incubating eggs too and we did get a look at Rosie’s bands.

Posted in Chicago South Loop, Chicago South Wacker, Chicago UIC

Joe!

•April 8, 2010 • Comments Off on Joe!

JoeMan, what a cold and blustery day. Not the best day to go out peregrine watching, but Matt had the whole day to do so and that can’t be wasted! By the time I met up with him at Wacker, he’d already been to three other sites, but he wasn’t complaining about the cold and wet in the least.

We got up to the room off the ledge and opened the door to peer down at the female in the nest box. She was down tight on the eggs, glaring at us, and this was good. The day was far too cold for her to get up and, honestly, we didn’t want her to. We’d made a decision to stay just long enough to maybe get the male’s bands and to see that the pair was, indeed, incubating.

Incubating they were. Check.

The male came in moments after we opened the door. He landed behind me, on the other side of the open door, so I had Matt hold the door open and assumed a very, very awkward position so that I could shoot through the tiny window in the top of the door — sort of arms up and unbraced while doing a deep lateral squat against the wall.

As soon as I focussed in on the male, he sat down on his feet, completely obscuring his leg bands. This is VERY common behavior and one that I have to constantly tell my self is not purposeful obstinacy on the bird’s part.

Continue reading ‘Joe!’

Posted in Chicago South Wacker, Leg bands

South Loop ID & Eggs

•April 8, 2010 • Comments Off on South Loop ID & Eggs

Identified the South Loop birds today. Helen is back and as feisty as ever. I loved seeing Helen there, but what made me REALLY happy was to see Mr. M. get up from incubating the eggs. The leg that was hurt last year has healed and although it looks twisted and a big ugly, Mr. M. seems to be working with it just fine. The pair is incubating unknown number of eggs.

Posted in Chicago South Loop, Leg bands

MCC 2010

•April 4, 2010 • Comments Off on MCC 2010

After last year’s nest failure, Sean and I have been eager to find out whether two birds would show up at the MCC nest this year. In mid-February, we began to get word that two birds were in the area. About that time, we began seeing two adults in the usual spots as well.

In February and March, I went to the garage top and walked the base of the MCC a number of times to see what I could see. There were no prey remains on any of the north niches, nor were there remains on the top of the garage stairwell. However, I did find some sign on the western side, where the jailbirds had taken to nesting in previous years.

In late March, I was up on the ‘el platform, waiting for a train, when I saw two adults zip in to the northernmost western niche — huzzah! We heard from a few others in that week saying that they’d seen the same.

Continue reading ‘MCC 2010’

Posted in Chicago MCC

Prudential Fight

•April 4, 2010 • Comments Off on Prudential Fight

The River Birds?This morning, Sean and I decided to go spend some time at his office, not working on Trib stuff, but rather watching for peregrine activity from the 22nd floor outdoor balcony! It’s a beautiful place that’s open to employees for outdoor lunching and stuff. And for peregrine watching, of course.

Fortunately, it was quite warm and beautiful, although I will admit that the wind was a little gusty at times. We sat on the balcony for several hours and boy did we see activity.

The first thing we checked was the building the river birds had tried to nest on last year and the year before. There was absolutely no activity over there, nor was there streaking, prey remains or anything else “falconish”. A couple of crows seemed to have taken up residence, in fact, and were doddling around the balcony, picking at this and that.

Continue reading ‘Prudential Fight’

Posted in Chicago River

MCC Pair Observed

•April 4, 2010 • Comments Off on MCC Pair Observed

A beautiful, clear but cold, day and a willing partner means one thing – a good peregrine watching opportunity.

My wonderful husband Sean came along to help me gather information on the MCC pair this morning. Thankfully, they were quite active, although up very high on the LaSalle metra building, so no pictures.

We DID see them copulate, however. After copulation, the male flew down to the MCC nest niche, landed on the edge and turned to call to the female, who was still perched on the top of the L.M. building. She watched him for a few seconds and then settled in for a good after copulation preen.

So, we have a pair at the MCC. The male has selected the northernmost west facing niche (same as last year and the year before) as his preferred nesting site. The pair has copulated.

And that’s the news fit to print!

Posted in Chicago MCC

New South Loop Site?

•April 3, 2010 • Comments Off on New South Loop Site?

Sean and I watch South Loop and observe copulation on 1130 South Michigan. New Site?

Posted in Chicago South Loop

Big Red Breeding

•April 2, 2010 • Comments Off on Big Red Breeding

A really rare and wonderful thing happened today. Mary wrote me email to tell me that one of our past chicks, Wacker’s 2008 female Big Red has been confirmed as the adult female at a nest in Michigan! Honestly, we almost never hear about a chick again after it’s fledged and moved on, so this really made me feel great. You can find the story at Jackson Citizen Patriot’s columnist Brad Flory’s blog The Bradosphere.

Big Red and her as yet unidentified mate are currently brooding 3 eggs. Brad’s column notes that the building has even installed a web cam! You can see that here: Big Red’s Nest Cam.

Wow, it’ll be so cool to have Wacker chicks in Michigan! Good luck, Big Red!

Posted in Chicago South Wacker, Leg bands

Calumet & South Loop

•April 1, 2010 • Comments Off on Calumet & South Loop

Calumet AdultThis morning, Mary and I took a trip down to the Calumet site to see what was up with our favorite bridge pair. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning, but the sun was sitting just at the angle that it streamed through the bridge girders and made it impossible to pick out more than silhouettes.

We spotted an adult bird in the sky about five minutes after we arrived. I set the Canon up on the tripod and popped the 2x extender on the 70-200mm. I don’t love the pictures I get with that combination, as they are a bit soft for my taste. However, since I knew these birds wouldn’t come down close, I had to live with it.

Continue reading ‘Calumet & South Loop’

Posted in Chicago South Loop, IL Calumet River

Release Peter!

•October 22, 2009 • Comments Off on Release Peter!

George with Peter (b/g 26/C)About a month ago, an unbanded male adult was rescued from a balcony in the south loop. I didn’t get to see him before he was taken out to George for rehab, but I thought it was likely it was our south loop adult male. He’d really injured his leg during nesting season and I wondered if the leg was the reason he went down.

George called us last week to say that the bird was healthy and ready for release. I accompanied Mary out to the suburbs to rendezvous with George. We met in our usual spot, the large parking lot of a truck stop/gas station way out west. We decided to band the bird (b/g C/26) while we were transferring him from George’s carrier to Mary’s, so I got a really good look at the leg, which appeared completely normal. So, either this wasn’t our south loop male OR the leg had healed wonderfully.

On the drive back into Chicago, Mary and I kept pretty quiet, as our falcon friend seemed super-eager to get out of the carrier and was banging into it. We thought it was best to keep the atmosphere calm and quiet. Mary planned to let the guy go on the north lawn of the Field Museum. That way, if he was the south loop male, he’d be very near his territory. If he wasn’t, he’d at least be close to where he was picked up.

Continue reading ‘Release Peter!’

Posted in Chicago South Loop, Leg bands

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »