I have two seconds to write this before a meeting, so excuse the hurried tone.

I walked home from the museum yesterday and as I reached the base of the CNA Insurance building, I stopped and watched the skies for a bit. This building seems to be a favorite chick flight training spot for Herc and Max. I know this from my own observations last year, but mostly from the stories of Dan Cozza, Preston Kendall and all the other folks that have been watching the MCC falcons for years. I was hoping I might finally see signs of Max and Herc’s chick.

It wasn’t long before three falcons came swooping in. Although they were up fairly high, I could see that at least one had a very white breast. The three flew lazy circles to the south of the CNA for awhile before one stooped to the west and went out of sight.

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With all the excitement of a new position, all the stress of trying to wrap up stuff from my old position and the fledging time underway, I’ve managed to get myself completely confused regarding what is going on with the MCC chicks.

If you will remember, Chick#1 took its maiden flight on Monday, June 18th. Chick #2 was spotted on the ledge by many of us over the next few days, though Herc and Max weren’t seen around the nesting ledge with as much frequency as before. The hope was that they were tending to Chick #1 elsewhere, so splitting time between the nest ledge and wherever that chick was.

On Thursday, June 21, folks from the EPA witnessed a chick spiral down from the ‘el tracks onto VanBuren and Clark. Quickly, they went down to rescue the poor thing before it was hit by a car (again, good going!) and placed a call to Mary, who went down to check things out. The chick, a female, seemed just fine, so Mary and Dan banded her (b/g S/14) and let her go on top of the EPA.

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This morning, as soon as I woke up, I went to my scope to look up at the EPA roof. Chick #1 was still up there and an adult was still watching over her. I wonder where Chick #2 is? Is Chick #2 actually the chick on the roof? Who knows. At any rate, one chick is just fine and on the roof, so that’s good!

At 11am or so, I got email from Preston:

“I did not have my bino’s w/ me and couldn’t stop for long but there was a bird at the nest site around 10:00am - I just had a fleeting glance but could not tell if it was the juvie or adult - it looked awfully white on the breast but its posture appeared young.”

Then, from Dan at around 1pm:

“Just spent about 20 minutes over lunch watching the prison cell and EPA roof from Clark Street and saw nothing, no one, nowhere.”

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Another big day for the Prison Chicks!

I had a busy and intense day of training today. So VERY much to learn before Mary Beth goes on Friday. But, boy, she’s a great teacher, so I think I’m going to be just fine. Carl seems so nice, too. I think he’ll make a very fine boss.

I couldn’t check email or voicemail while I was in training. I will admit, in the back of my mind, I constantly wondered what might be going on with the MCC chicks. As it turns out, what was happening decidedly equaled plenty.

Around noon, or was it one? I don’t know. In the afternoon, I sat at the microptics station, wondering why Mary Beth’s Bat Fly seemed to stay pristinely atop the mound of prep material (KY jelly in a sea of 95% alcohol - and yes, I laughed the first time, too). My Bat Fly kept listing to the port side in an ugly fashion, making it unphotographable. I decided to take a quick break, so I went to get my cell phone in my old office. It rang in my hand.
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Not much to report! Chick Two still owns the nesting ledge, though every time I see it, it seems like it had grown! Should fly very, very soon now. No word or sign of Chick One, but that is probably a good thing. Chances are, as busy as it’s been down here, if it had gone down somewhere, someone would have noticed.

Work training goes on and goes well, though I will say that rapidly learning a whole new group of organisms is a bit stressful. Lucky I get excited by that kind of challenge. Today, we went through the collection and I got more camera time. God, I love that camera.

I ran into Mary. Both Wacker chicks have gone down, but both were fine and released back on the nesting ledge. Other than that, we seem to be getting a lot less downed chicks this year. Yay! That is a REALLY good thing.

Oh! And Mary heard from Dave, the caretaker at the Uptown Theater. He said that all of the chicks have been flying around the area, mostly roosting on the big bank building when they aren’t in the air. So, that means that all of the Uptown chicks have successfully fledged!

More later!

Today promised to be busy. The woman I will be replacing is leaving Friday and I need to learn EVERYTHING I can from her by then. With that in mind, I got up extra early so I could check on the remaining MCC chick and walk the area to see if the other chick was down.

The lone MCC chick was still on the ledge. It paced up and back, flaring its wings and flapping furiously. I think it will fledge any time now - looks like it is plenty strong. A walk of the area yielded nothing in the way of a downed chick. Phew! I hope Chick One is just fine!

I got into work at 8am and Mary Beth immediately started training me on microptics, which was a TON of fun. I love cameras and this is a whole heck of a lot of camera. I got my first experience working with the tiny, gnat-sized Bat Fly. Man, I’m going to have to work to switch gears from handling bird-sized things to barely-visible-to-the-eye type things. I kept feeling like I was going to crush the little guys with my tweezers! I didn’t, thank God.

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Ok, this has been one of those days when you wake up and your legs are already running.

I went to watch the chicks at 7am this morning and heard the two of them far before I saw them - noisy chicks! I watched for about an hour and a half, long enough to see many wing exercises, a few scuffles and a couple of feedings.

At about 9:30am, I made my way to the museum to do some wrap up of some of the work I’d been doing for the bird division. Actually, I’m not sure I mentioned this anywhere! Awhile ago, I got word from my boss that my money was finally running out. This wasn’t a big shock to me as I understand that’s how museum money is - there today, gone tomorrow. It sort of goes with the territory.

My boss, John, worked TIRELESSLY to help me find a new position. He’s just the greatest guy and a stellar boss and mentor. Anyway, about two weeks ago, he asked me to go talk to a researcher named Carl, who works with both the Mammal and Insect Divisions on a special Bat Fly collection. So, I did.

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I left home this morning at about 7am, telling Sean I’d probably be a couple of hours on top of the garage if he wanted to join me later. He demured, saying he had his chores to do for the day and some other work he wanted to get done. So, I kissed him on the cheek, slung my scope bag and camera equipment over my shoulders and wandered on towards the MCC.

I decided to watch the nest side first, so I turned up Clark Street. I heard a great deal of noise from the ledge as I walked up. Peering upward, I saw one chick flapping its wings madly and squawking, so I hurried up the exit-only ‘el steps to take a good look. As I got to the first platform, I leaned over and looked up just in time to see a second chick poke its head over the side and look down to the street. A second chick! Excellent!

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I left for the MCC very early since I was scheduled to meet Mary at 9am to go to another site. As I rounded the corner of Clark and Congress, I looked up towards the MCC. The building stood in profile, so at best, I expected I might see the very tip of a tail if an adult were on the ledge. I did see the tip of a tail, but for some reason it simply struck me as different — probably color — and I instantly thought, “A chick!”

Hoping it wasn’t wishful thinking sinking its claws deeper into me, I hustled as fast as I could to the exit-only stairwell and climbed to the center platform. I poked my head out and, ‘lo, a chick!

Ok, I just have to say how relieved I am that I haven’t been hallucinating this whole bloody time — Yes, Virginia, there really are MCC chicks!

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Wow, no chicks yet AGAIN today. What a waiting game! Today, I decided to watch from the ‘el platform. I arrived very early, during rush hour, and managed to blend in with the commuters for at least two hours. This allowed me to snap pictures at whim and watch the nest activity with binocs, but sadly, I think even during rush hour, I would have attracted a lot of attention if I’d set my scope up, so I did not.

Very early in my monitoring session, I saw a very large puff of feathers come up from inside the nest accompanied by lots and lots of chattering noise. Hercules sat on the corner of the LaSalle Atrium building and Max snoozed on one of the lighting fixtures on the Board of Trade Annex. So, unless their nest is haunted, there are chicks in there.

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