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.
Here is Mary’s final report! Sorry it’s a bit late posting, but I’ve been a busy girl! This year, I’ve decided to help the Chicago Bird and Collision Monitors and Flint Creek Wildlife Rehab by transporting the DOA birds from Flint Creek to the Field Museum. As well, I’ve been out there with my camera, trying to get pictures of some of the migrants to add to my Chicago Bird Field Guide project. I’ve had a very successful Palm Warbler and Ovenbird year, but haven’t gotten many other good pictures. Oh, well, it’s a work in progress!
ACTIVE SITES, NESTING VERIFIED
5821 N. Broadway
Adult female Auntie Em (b/g 5/*P, 1999, Milwaukee, WI) and adult male Tracy (b/g *P/M, 1997 Broadway, Chicago, IL) had five eggs. The first chick was sighted on May 9th.
Belmont & LSD
In the fall of 2006, a pair of peregrines began using the ledges of a building near Belmont and Lake Shore Drive. On November 21, 2006 the female was identified as Ballistic (b/g 69/C, 2005, Cleveland, OH) and the male was identified only as far as having a b/g band. We received no new reports regarding this pair again until then end of April 2007. Apparently, two eggs were laid in a gutter and lost during a rainstorm on 4/2/07. Ballistic was reported at the end of March over at St. Michael’s, paired with adult male Hops (see St. Michael’s below).
I met Mary at the museum at 8am. We had a fairly big mission for the day, which would require us to travel all over the Chicago metro area. A number of adult birds remained unidentified, so we planned to start at Evanston and work our way down through the city to Hyde Park, identifying as we went.
We arrived at the Evanston Library at 8:45pm and quickly scanned the sky and known perches. Neither of us saw any sign of the adults, so we decided to go inside and wait. As I might have mentioned, the Evanston nest has a web camera and we set up shop at a table near the base of that. It isn’t possible to see the actual nest from inside the library (a good thing for the birds), but the adults tend to land on the beam above the nest and that is visible. In fact, that’s where Mary and I got the female’s leg band number last year.
I do not consider myself a pushy person. I’m generally laid back and prefer working hard and waiting to be given things over asking for things outright. This year, I have to admit that the Uptown Theater held the top spot on my “Nest Sites to Visit” list. So, I worked hard and waited and ‘lo! Last week, Mary asked me to come along on the Uptown Theater banding. Huzzah! Thank you, Mary!
(Above left: The fire escapes in back of the Uptown Theater with the nest site noted)
This morning, I made my way to the museum around 8:30am. Mary scheduled the banding for 11am, so I figured that would give me time to monitor the museum pair for a bit before we were due to leave.
Mary just sent us an update on all the nests to this date. Wow! What a lot of activity!
125 S. Wacker
This site has been used for nesting since 1989. The 2007 adult male identification has been confirmed. The adult male is Etienne (b/b 7/6, 2002, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada), the same male from last year. The adult female is suspected to be last years female, Rahn (b/g 01/A, Wisconsin Power and Light Edgewater Generating Station, Sheboygan, WI), but her bands have not been confirmed. They laid their first egg on 3/30/07 and completed a clutch of 4 (unconfirmed) eggs sometime later.