I woke up at about 4:30am this morning, very anxious about the remaining MCC chick. I rolled out of bed, tossed some clothes on and tip-toed out the door, pet carrier in hand. The closer I got to the jail, the more I worried that the MCC chick had somehow ended up on the ground or was injured somewhere.

But, I needn’t have worried! The chick perched upright and strong on the same sill at the Men’s Hotel. She perked every time a pigeon or gull flew by, watching the thing with keen interest, but not yet ready to take off after it. I got my binocs out and after five minutes, spotted both Hercules and Max on nearby ledges.

After about an hour and a half, I went back home for a quick shower before work. When I arrived at the museum, I stopped in to update Mary. As I prepared to leave her office, Lincoln Park zoo called, so I loitered in order to hear the prognosis. After the call, Mary told me that the chick had a keel bone injury - possibly a break. Although that isn’t a good injury to have, the chick seemed to be doing very well and the vet felt quite hopeful that with proper medical treatment and a nice, cushy rehab, she’d be just fine. We’ll all keep our fingers crossed on that!!

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Wow, did I say yesterday was a long day? Yeesh. TODAY was a LONG day. I actually slept in just a bit, but when the phone rang at 8am I knew exactly what that meant. As I had suspected, a chick was down at the MCC.

Sean and I went into action mode and five minutes later were at the base of the MCC. Sean spotted the chick first. I cringed. She was laying down, which is not a great sign, in the entryway of a restaurant directly across from the nest. I walked to her slowly, gently scooped her up and put her in our pet carrier. I called Mary with the news.

“Hmmm, that doesn’t sound good. Ok. I just spoke to Katrina at the zoo. She’s expecting you guys.”

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I had to go into work today, partly to get some things done at my own job, but partly to be on hand for a special visitor.

I think I’ve mentioned that when our banding team went to Wacker to band the chicks, Fred, the building engineer we’ve all gotten to know over the past couple of years, had his son there to witness the event. Although he’d gotten approval from the building prior to bringing his son all the way in with him to work, some confusion ensued and his son was not allowed to attend the banding. Fred Jr. was, needless to say, crushed.

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While watching the three MCC chicks jostle around on the ledge a few days ago, I had a thought that the male might try to fledge before the week ended. So, this morning, Friday, when I rounded the corner at Clark and saw only two chicks, I wasn’t overly surprised. I took awhile to study the two chicks on the ledge - one very large, one smaller, but not overly so. This led me to believe that the smallest of the trio, probably the male, was missing.

I walked the nearby streets and alleyways, but didn’t find anything. Hopeful, I went to the top of the garage to get a sky view. It took me all of two seconds to spot him on the roof of the two story annex south of the EPA’s building. He was on his back and his wings were a bit out, so I assumed he was dead.

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Hi all! Today went really well for such a fantastically stressful part of the season! We didn’t have any calls about chicks down, so that’s great!!

I went to check on the jail birds this morning before work. I only saw two on the ledge and so I spent a good little while checking out the alleyways and such around the area, just in case one of the chicks had fledged and gone down. I didn’t find anything, so I went up onto the garage top to get a “bird’s eye” view. All of the surrounding rooftops seemed clear of any juvenile peregrines. However, one of the MCC adults was in the area, napping on the roof of the Board of Trade annex. I took my camera out and snapped a few pictures, hoping it might be Max and he might at last give me a look at his leg band number. Whether it was or was not, I’ll never know - the bird sat down on its feet the whole time I was there.

So, finally, I absolutely HAD to get to work. Late, of course. Le sigh. Good thing I have a great boss!

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Yesterday (the 16th), Dan Cozza sent Mary and I email saying he’d seen a peregrine chick on the jail ledge on his way into work at 7am! I’d spent a large amount of time on the ‘el platform beneath the ledges over the weekend and had some suspicion we’d be seeing the chicks soon. They were very, very noisy and active in the nest.

I hustled over after work to take a look and ‘lo! A chick! So, this morning, I got up extra early so I could go check them out before work. As I rounded the corner on Clark, I immediately saw not one chick, but three!

I watched them for quite some time. One of the chicks is huge - so, a female who takes after her mother. One of the chicks is pretty small and has almost no puffs of baby down left - so, a male! The other one is sort of in between. I’ve been vacillating back and forth between a large male and a small female.

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The Uptown banding day excites all of us a great deal because we gain entrance to one of Chicago’s hidden treasures - The Uptown Theater.

(Most info from Wikipedia) The Uptown Theater is a massive movie palace in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. It was constructed in 1925 for the Balaban and Katz theater chain by architects Rapp and Rapp.

The theater is immense - in fact it is the largest in Chicago! It seats 4,381 people and its interior size (volume) is said to be larger than any other movie palace in the United States, including Radio City Music Hall in New York. It occupies over 46,000 square feet (4,300 m²) of land at the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Broadway in Chicago’s Uptown Square Entertainment District. The mammoth theater has an ornate five story entrance lobby with an eight story façade.

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Ah, a Warehouse favorite time of the year comes ’round again here in Chicago - Printers Row Book Fair, wherein our neighborhood’s illustrious printing industry past is celebrated with the Midwest’s largest literary event. For us, lots and lots of literature literally ludicrously local - meaning much money missing, more monographs.

We actually came away a bit light this year, for us. We purchased four very nice books: Richard Cahan and Mark Jacobs’ Chicago under Glass: Early Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, Julia Bachrach and Jo Ann Nathan’s Inspired by Nature: The Garfield Park Conservatory and Chicago’s West Side, David G. Clark’s Route 66 in Chicago (Images in America) and Peggy MacNamara’s Architecture by Birds and Insects: A Natural Art.

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Yesterday, we banded the two Wacker chicks - a boy and a girl. We had quite a big group for Wacker, including a special invited group from CNA, so I spent much of the time talking with them. However, I did get a chance to snap a few pictures of the Wacker female. I am quite happy to report that we’ve confirmed the female is Rahn (b/g, 01/A). So, kudos to Rahn for finding a mate so quickly after Etienne passed. The CNA folks and the young son of my favorite building engineer, Fred, named the chicks:

• Big Red (F) - for the CNA building, which the employees call, well, Big Red!
• Nel (M) - for Darnel. We still have to find out who Darnel is. Fred and his son are going to be coming to the museum soon for a special tour, so I’ll try to remember to find out then!

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Hi all! Here’s a quick update on bandings.

5821 N Broadway - Three chicks, two females and one male, were banded on May 28th.

Evanston Library - Four chicks, three females and one male, were banded on May 30th.

Waukegan - Five chicks, three females and two males, were banded on June 2nd.

125 S. Wacker - Banding to take place this week.

Uptown Theater - Banding to take place next week.

University of Illinois at Chicago - Banding to take place next week.

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