St. Mary’s Check

•May 17, 2009 • Comments Off on St. Mary’s Check

St. Mary's Cache StationI am happy to report that Sean seems to be well on the way to recovery! I, however, seem to be coming down with something that seems to have a striking number of symptoms in common with Sean’s illness. Ugh.

This morning, we left for St. Mary’s Hospital bright and early. Our plan was to monitor the goings-on and come home in the early afternoon so that we could watch the playoff game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Redwings.

Chicago stunned us with another beautiful day, but sadly I had to keep my tender skin under the cover of clothing due to yesterday’s oversight. The sunlight and fresh air seemed to do Sean a world of good, though, since he’d been cooped up in our house for the last four days.

Upon arrival, we almost instantly spotted an adult peregrine plucking prey near a vent at the top of the hospital’s south face. I handed Sean the camera and got my binoculars out, but the bird was too far away for either gadget to pick up much in the way of detail.

Continue reading ‘St. Mary’s Check’

Posted in Chicago MCC, Chicago St. Mary's

Sunburned

•May 16, 2009 • Comments Off on Sunburned

A Quick Stop for CacheOh my GOD do my arms hurt. I look like I’m wearing a bright red shirt, I’m so burned! What a dummy I am.

Sean’s been very sick with a cold. He missed two days of work, which is almost unheard of for him. So, I felt it was important he not go out monitoring with me this morning, even though the day was beautiful and sunny. Mary asked us to check St. Mary’s Hospital this weekend, so if he’s feeling better tomorrow, I think it’ll be ok for him to get out in the fresh air.

I decided to stick close to home, just in case my patient needed anything, which was all for the good since the jail birds needed some monitorin’ anyway. Because I planned to be out awhile, I took along Ratcliffe’s The Peregrine Falcon.

Continue reading ‘Sunburned’

Posted in Chicago MCC

Sometimes you go to them…

•May 14, 2009 • Comments Off on Sometimes you go to them…

…sometimes they come to you.

This morning, I took the bus in to work. As we rounded the MC Drive curve to the south of Soldier Field, I caught movement to the east in my peripheral. A peregrine, I’ll assume one of the museum/south loop birds, was in hot pursuit of a medium-sized bird that was flying so fast I couldn’t see anything more than a streak. They were maybe 10 feet off the ground, heading directly for the side of the bus.

I tend to be fairly expressive in unguarded moments. I remember one of my professors in graduate school consistently calling me out for what he called my variety of “I’m dubious” facial expressions, which he claimed I paired with heavy sighs. No matter how often I assured him that these were unconscious body movements not meant to convey anything at all, but resulting from a struggle to stay completely focused after one hour of sleep, I think he still took it a bit personally.

Continue reading ‘Sometimes you go to them…’

Posted in Chicago South Loop

Pub Day!

•May 12, 2009 • Comments Off on Pub Day!

IMG_2070

For you, I dance the DANCE OF THE LEG BAND! Successful day today (..cross-step, kick, twirl..)!

Late this morning, Mary and I kept an appointment to visit the Wacker nest. This was my first visit to Wacker this season, but Mary and Matt went a few weeks ago when the female was still brooding the eggs. During that visit, they both got a look at the adult male’s leg bands and identified him as Joe (b/g 59/H), the male from last year. The female absolutely refused to move from the scrape, so they were unable to get her bands and an egg count.

Our favorite building engineer, Fred, called Mary last week to report the eggs had begun to hatch, so we were hopeful we’d have a better view of the nest’s occupants. We drove over with our windows down, enjoying the spectacular day, a rarity in Chicago this spring. As we pulled into our parking spot on the top floor of the parking garage, I looked up and spotted an adult swooping in to land on the Wacker building’s nest ledge.

Continue reading ‘Pub Day!’

Posted in Chicago South Wacker, IL Evanston

River Birds

•May 10, 2009 • Comments Off on River Birds

The River BirdsSean and I checked on the River pair this afternoon, just to get an idea how active they might be around the nest site. This, of course, required Sean to go into work on a Sunday, as the best viewing spot for that nest is from his office building’s 17th floor windows. Good ole’ husband made the sacrifice and we spent three and a half hours monitoring the activity on top of the London Guarantee building.

We’ve heard from the building engineering staff that the pair was sitting on four eggs, but Mary and I were both worried that the torrential downpours of late April/early May had washed the eggs out. I’m happy to report that during the hours Sean and I watched, there seemed to be more than enough movement in and out of the nest to suggest the pair has something cooking over there.

Continue reading ‘River Birds’

Posted in Chicago River

Uptown Theater Visit

•May 6, 2009 • Comments Off on Uptown Theater Visit

Zoom (b/r *4/H)Today, I accompanied Mary on a quick trip to the Uptown Theater for a nest check. I can’t quite express how excited I get when we go up there as I’ve fallen head over heels for that building! It’s such an honor to be able to spend even a little bit of time inside.

Dave, the caretaker, was standing outside the front entrance waiting for us when we pulled up. I haven’t been up that way since last year and I have to say, the block has undergone some changes. It looked somehow spiffed up a bit and I noticed a few new businesses on either side of the theater. I hope that bodes well for the continued effort to restore the theater to its former glory!

Continue reading ‘Uptown Theater Visit’

Posted in Chicago Uptown Theater

Mrs. Doubtfire’s chicks hatch!

•May 5, 2009 • Comments Off on Mrs. Doubtfire’s chicks hatch!

May 5: Evanston Eggs Hatch

Today (and possibly last night), three chicks hatched at the Evanston nest. This is more or less the timeline:

3/28: First Egg
3/30: Second Egg
4/1: Third Egg
4/3: Fourth Egg
5/5: First (39 days), second (37 days), third chicks (35 days) hatch

I don’t have pictures of the third chick, but Evanston Peregrine Falcon Watch has tons! Mary, Matt and I will probably do our annual Evanston Pub Day next week, which is when we have generally been able to identify both adults. EPFW creator Deborah might join us as well, which would be fun!

Continue reading ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’s chicks hatch!’

Posted in Chicago Loyola, IL Evanston

The Waukegan Four

•May 4, 2009 • Comments Off on The Waukegan Four

Four Chicks at Waukegan As you can plainly see, Waukegan has four very healthy looking chicks now!

In other news, Sean and I spent about six hours on Sunday walking around the South Loop looking for the “Museum” birds. We did not see one trace of them until we were back up by State and Roosevelt on our way home, of course. A small part of me wanted to chase the single adult cruising the skies above State and ~14th, but one look at my very tired husband convinced me otherwise. The blisters on the back of both of my heels appreciated that decision as well.

Continue reading ‘The Waukegan Four’

Posted in Chicago South Loop, IL Waukegan

Three Sightings

•May 1, 2009 • Comments Off on Three Sightings

I love it when I see others learn about Chicago’s beautiful peregrine population. Without exception, the people I’ve come in contact with seem as enriched by these birds as I have been – and as eager to monitor their activities. Lucky us!

Monitor Husband Sean has been keeping a close eye on the River Birds for us. He works right across the river from this years nesting site, so he peeks in on them every time he goes outside. He’s seen plenty of activity on the London Guarantee building as the River Birds brood their four eggs and been meticulous in reporting those sightings to me. It’s been wonderful for Mary and I to get updates from Sean and I’m psyched that he’s taken such an interest in his wife’s work and this wonderful project.

Continue reading ‘Three Sightings’

Posted in Chicago River, IL Calumet River, IL Hyde Park

Waukegan Hatches?

•April 30, 2009 • Comments Off on Waukegan Hatches?

Waukegan Hatches?Mary and I were supposed to go out to a few sites this morning, but the pouring rain canceled our plans. It’s really been nasty here in Chicago!

It has given me a chance to catch up on bat fly and scholarship committee (my third job now) stuff, so that’s been beneficial. As well, I’ve been able to have the Evanston and Waukegan webcams open all day, so I’ve been checking in on those every so often.

About an hour ago, so 2:30ish, the adult female started nuzzling under her breast feathers. At some point, I saw a little white blur pop out (as you can see in the bottom picture). It was out for a few seconds and then she nuzzled it back underneath her.

So, there you go. I’ll give it an …. 80% chance that we have a Waukegan baby. She laid on March 25th, so that’s 36 days, which works out shiny.

Our Evanston female left the nest just once while I was watching today and there were still four eggs, so no babies yet. However, Evanston didn’t have their first egg until March 28th, so we’re on day 33 of incubation now. The nest will bear watching for the next few days as we will doubtless have some new predatory Evanstonian’s soon.

Continue reading ‘Waukegan Hatches?’

Posted in IL Evanston, IL Waukegan

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »