They’re Baaaaack!

•April 15, 2008 • Comments Off on They’re Baaaaack!

No RespectAfter several days of not seeing the Museum pair, Mary and I felt sure that they’d moved on for the season. But, this morning as I came into work, I saw the familiar silhouette atop the museum roof, just not in the familiar place.

It seems Mr. M. and Helen have changed venues. They sat near one another on the southwestern side of the building, Mr. M. on the tip of the curly ornament and Helen on the ledge beneath.

I settled on a picnic table beneath them to watch for a bit. After about five minutes, Mr. M. hopped from his perch, arced around in the air and landed atop Helen. So, they were still trying!

After that short episode (sorry, Mr. M.!), he returned to his previous perch and called down to Helen. She disappeared from view into the gutter. Oh dear. From a slanted floor to a gutter – not the right move, guys!

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Posted in Chicago South Loop

The 12 Days of Peregrines

•April 14, 2008 • Comments Off on The 12 Days of Peregrines

Unfriendly JoeThree Eeee-ggs Lost!
Two Le-eg Bands!
AND SOME PERE-GRI- iiiNES IN OUR CIiiii-TY!

*ahem*

An exciting day today!

First, an update on the museum pair. We’ve been checking the stairs outside the north entrance diligently and haven’t seen any more egg splats. On the sad side, we’ve seen very little of Helen and Mr. M as well. I will hope that they’ve gone to another site to lay eggs in a less precarious place, but time will tell. This follows the same cycle as last year, so I suspect we may not see them again until next season.

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Posted in Chicago MCC, Chicago South Wacker, Leg bands

Museum Count: Three Eggs Lost

•April 12, 2008 • Comments Off on Museum Count: Three Eggs Lost

MM EatingHelen and her unbanded mate at the Field Museum lost another egg today (a grand total now of three). Boooo!! It seems that the ledge is tilted outward, so the eggs roll off shortly after Helen lays them.

While we would love to go fix the problem immediately, as always, challenges exist. I am not going to go into specifics, but I can say that putting nest boxes on buildings, especially historic sorts of buildings, isn’t an easy process. It requires a lot of planning and discussion with many folks. As well, as Mary has pointed out time and again – putting a nest box up does not, in any way, insure the birds will use it. There are several sites where nest boxes were installed DIRECTLY on the exact spot the peregrines tried to nest during the season and the following season, Mary and company would find the birds sitting at the opposite end of the building from the box.

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Posted in Chicago South Loop

Odd Happenings

•April 8, 2008 • 2 Comments

Not a Good ThingAt about 11am yesterday morning, my boss Carl came into my office.

“Hey,” he said. “I was just outside on the north side of the building and I noticed a broken egg right under the peregrine nest. Maybe you want to go check it out?”

Indeed. I grabbed my things and hurried over to the bird department to let Mary know. About five minutes later, we stood outside on the stairway, looking down at a big egg splat. The egg had basically disintegrated on impact, but we managed to find enough shell to verify that it belonged to a peregrine.

After collecting as much debris as we could and taking a number of photos for documentation, we backed off to search the building for a perched peregrine. I got my camera out and pumped it up to full zoom, managing to capture a photo of the very top of a peregrine head back in the shadows of the nest area. The other one wasn’t around.

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Posted in Chicago South Loop

The Long Walk

•April 7, 2008 • Comments Off on The Long Walk

(probably) Hercules takes flightA few weeks ago, Sean and I went down to Peoria to help his grandfather set up a new home computer network. After grandpa used it for a week, Sean and I realized there were a few more little things that needed fixing, so we decided another trip was needed. Generally, I would have gone with him, but there was little that I could actually do to help him AND peregrine season is in full swing.

Saturday morning, I rolled out of bed very early, which wasn’t so easy since I’d been up until three in the morning on Friday playing a video game. Good to know I still haven’t grown out of that. I packed all the camera gear, my binocs and some water after checking out the window to see a gloriously beautiful day dawning.

I decided to start at the top of Michigan Avenue and work my way down through the loop. I had three pairs of birds as a goal – the River Birds, The Wacker Birds and the Jail Birds.

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Posted in Chicago MCC, Chicago River, Chicago South Wacker

The Museum Female Identified!

•April 3, 2008 • Comments Off on The Museum Female Identified!

Raptor PornSean’s boss gave him tickets to see the Cubs game with another co-worker today, so he took the camera equipment with him. With all the study he’s done, I bet he gets some excellent pictures!

I decided to take my scope with the digiscoping rig and new tripod with me to work. The museum pair was hanging out on the northern niche again, so I set up below them. When I got my scope up, I turned it towards the peregrine sitting on the roof as it was bathed in light. Before I even focused in, I could see a flash of green on her leg and got excited. She stood with her left side to me and about one minute after I started watching her, she held her left leg out. Her bands were achingly clear – black 73 / green D.

I silently thanked her as she turned the band to a slightly better angle before reaching up to preen her head feathers. What a GOOD girl!! I only hope (p) Herc and (p) Max are that cooperative this year!

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Posted in Chicago South Loop, Leg bands

My First Leg Band … Sort of

•April 2, 2008 • Comments Off on My First Leg Band … Sort of

Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk CropWe had our first really nice day today in Chicago – what timing! I packed up all the camera equipment (new lenses!!) and headed for the museum about an hour early. I decided to take the bus when I realized that my pack was quite heavy. I think I’ll have to sort of recondition my body to be able to carry all this stuff around this year – let me tell you, that won’t be a bad thing.

I got off the #146 at the museum stop and hurried towards the northern face of the building with hopes that I’d see our museum pair. Before I could even round the corner, I noted a commotion. Our local crow gang perched in the top of one tree making all sorts of noise. I scanned up first – looking for a peregrine, of course – saw nothing and then scanned down. An absolutely immense raptor perched on a low branch in the crow’s tree. I blinked and watched as it took off, heading around the corner to the northern face with a murder of crows in hot pursuit.

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Posted in Chicago MCC, Equipment

Some New Camera Equipment

•April 1, 2008 • Comments Off on Some New Camera Equipment

Warehouse KitTwo months ago, my brilliant husband Sean received an award at work for his exemplary performance. Along with a nice plaque, he got a bit of a cash bonus! Because Sean is a good man, he offered to put his bonus in savings to go towards eventually fixing a bit of an electrical problem we have in our house. I said, “Nonsense! You won this, blow your spoils on something fun that you want!”

As an illustration of just how much the photography bug has bitten us both, he didn’t even hesitate before deciding on a new lens of some sort. He spent the next month pouring over reviews, price lists, etc… before settling on a few items.

1 – Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Lens w/ Hood
1 – Canon EF Extender 1.4x II
1 – Bogen Manfrotto 055XPROB Black Tripod Kit with 322RC2 Grip Action Ball Quick Release Head & Tripod Case
1 – Bogen 4 Section Light-Weight Monopod
1 – B + W 77mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer Coated Glass Filter

We got the 70-200mm lens and 1.4 extender today. Yipee!!! Neither of us can wait to use it. The only thing that worries me (slightly) is the weight – daaaaaang, is that whole thing heavy. Lucky a monopod is on its way!

I’m not sure if I mentioned that over the winter, I bought a digiscope adapter to attach my Nikon Coolpix to my spotting scope. Last year, I managed to get one or two digiscoped pictures by holding the camera up to the eyepiece of the scope and attempting to stand very, very still. That technique wasn’t only highly difficult, but it produced so few usable pictures as to be useless. I vowed to get a digiscoping rig and found on from Eagle Optical that works fine.

This is going to be a BIG learning curve for me this year. Let’s hope I get some usable pictures!

Posted in Equipment

Goings On and Updates

•March 24, 2008 • Comments Off on Goings On and Updates

I made a few trips up to the garage top last week with the hopes that I’d see Spotting a Peregrine
Herc and Max getting the ole’ nest ready for baby season. I fervently hoped that this year, they’d choose to nest on the north side of the building rather than the west side, as they did last year. As anyone who read last year’s journal entries knows, watching them on the western exposure presents quite a challenge.

First things first, it seems that many of my friends from the garage moved on over the winter. Sadly, I won’t be seeing Tyrone, Tom or Nichelle this year. I suppose that’s sort of the way these things go, but they will be missed.

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Posted in Chicago MCC, Chicago South Wacker, Chicago UIC

Let the 2008 Season Commence!

•March 10, 2008 • Comments Off on Let the 2008 Season Commence!

Is it time for another peregrine season already? Time flies!

Indeed, the courting season should be getting underway, so time to dust off the falcon journal, take stock of camera and scope supplies and ready myself for an exciting several months of falcon monitoring to come.

Last weekend, Sean and I made our first VERY chilly check-up on the MCC. I am happy to report that we saw two robustly healthy looking adult peregrines basking in the sunshine on the west facing MCC ledges! I have to suppose it is Hercules and Max, but of course cannot make that claim until I get confirmation on their leg band numbers. However, their size and markings lead me to believe the MCC couple has weathered what was a hard Chicago winter with barely a feather out of place.

Since I have little more to report than that one highly satisfying sighting of the MCC birds, I would like to report on some other sightings supplied mostly by a group of talented photographers on Flickr.

Continue reading ‘Let the 2008 Season Commence!’

Posted in IL Midwest General

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