So! I promised to catch up and alas, I have not. However, I AM fully caught up on my work in the Insect Division, so all is not lost.

I have been out and about doing peregrine stuff all season, even though I haven’t been writing much about it. This weekend, I happily stayed closer to home, watching my favorite crazy kids - the jailbirds. As I’ve noted elsewhere, Hercules (have her bands, so this is for sure) and Max (b/g 5/? - so that one is pretty sure too) decided to nest on the western side of the jail again this year. This means that I am spending less time on the garage top and more time skulking around the CTA platform below the nest.

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Hi all! Just a quick note to say that Matt and Mary have successfully banded the four Evanston Library chicks! Since Mary and I were able to get the adult IDs in an earlier trip, I decided not to go up this year for the banding. I am going to save my extra hours to attend some bandings where we don’t have both adult IDs. Here’s a short VIDEO. As usual, it was VERY well attended.

The library folks have come up with great names for their three girls and one boy:

• Neal - for Neal Ney, semi-professional bird and nature lover, former Evanston Public Library Director.
• Brigid - for Brigid O’Shaughnessy the main female character in the Maltese Falcon.
• Mistress Hussey - for Mistress Margaret Hussey who was compared to a falcon by poet John Skelton.
• Rebecca - for Rebecca West the author of Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia.

Congratulations Evanston!

Awhile ago, I began receiving mail from a Flickr member in the Wicker Park area regarding peregrine sightings at St. Mary’s Hospital. Kevin turned out to be a very good source of information as he checked in on the sight with some regularity and always had his camera in tow.

I wanted to document the sightings here so that we have it on hand. Several people from our program have gone out to St. Mary’s and they, too, have seen a peregrine - though only a single bird. Kevin, on the other hand, has not only seen two birds at one time, but has also gotten photos. So, we are keeping close watch on the sight and will do so next year as well.

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A quick update.

It seems as if the museum pair has finally stopped laying eggs! They are still around, but we are seeing less of them as time goes on. It’s been a week since the last egg was lost and no one has seen any copulation since. Hopefully, Helen and Mr. M. will be back next year.

The huge roof renovation here at the museum should be done sometime this fall. At that point, we’ll install a nest box. Hopefully Helen and Mr. M. will actually use the box in lieu of laying their eggs in such precarious spots!

Anyway, the final tally. Helen and Mr. M. lost a whopping NINE eggs this season. Now, that is persistence. Here’s the timing:

4/7: 1st egg lost (museum)
4/8: 2nd egg lost (museum)
4/12: 3rd egg lost (museum)
4/18: 4th egg abandoned (museum)
4/22: 5th egg lost (museum)
5/9: 6th and 7th eggs abandoned (construction site)
5/21: 8th and 9th eggs lost (museum)

We will all keep our fingers crossed for next year. As for now, the pair looks very healthy and continue to hunt the area.

Oh man, did I get behind! My life has been so busy of late, I haven’t had time to keep up with anything, but I am terribly sorry for the lack of updates! I’ll go back and fill in some of the blanks over the weekend, but let me start with a quick recap of this month’s events. I’ve written some more detailed entries, but haven’t posted them. I’ll try to backdate and post them over the long weekend. Anywho! Without further ado:

125 S. Wacker Falcons - The male at Wacker has been confirmed as Joe (b/g 59/H). Joe replaced last year’s male Etienne, as Etienne died over the winter. The female has yet to be confirmed, but is most likely Rahn, the female from last year. We were all very pleased to see that Rahn found a mate in time for this nesting season after the loss of Etienne in January. Joe and probably-Rahn are currently busy taking care of four chicks and we should be banding them shortly after Evanston.

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Today, Mary and I went up to Evanston for our annual “Pub Outing and Peregrine Watch”. Yay!

We arrived in Evanston at around 10:30am. Immediately, we spotted an adult sitting on the crossbeam above the nest, so we hustled into the library to see if we could get a good look at its bands from the second floor window.

As I’ve mentioned here and there, the faithful little Panasonic camera that had been my constant companion throughout peregrine seasons past died over the winter. We replaced it with a Canon 40d and added a very nice 70-200mm lens to the package. I am forever grateful for the Panasonic, as it was the perfect tool on which to learn the ins and outs of digital photography. However, the Canon is light years better, though it requires much more skill to operate effectively and is MUCH less low profile.

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Max and Herc were quite active today, going in and out of the northernmost west-facing niche with food. Must be hungry chicks to feed - just must be! Can’t wait to see them!

Today, I spent my time on the top of the garage with the hope - no, stronger than that, BELIEF - that I would at long last get that perfect confirmation of Max’s bands. But, alas, I came home with the same pieces of the puzzle I’ve always had - black over green (for sure), 5 on top (less sure, but still fairly positive), sideways E on the bottom (murky, not so sure).

Anyone who has read this blog knows that since I’ve started working with the program, Max has managed to keep me just on the edge of getting a perfect look at his bands. In response, I’ve become obsessed. Max’s bands have become my great white whale.

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Since March, we’ve received several emails and phone calls from people who spotted peregrines from the bar on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building. We had some sightings in this area last year as well, but we had no evidence of a nest.

I’ve gone up to the 95th a number of times now, but it wasn’t until May 4th that I actually saw a peregrine. I first spotted it as it stooped from the spire of a building at 680 North Lake Shore Drive. I watched for awhile and saw it fly back up to the tower, land near the top and disappear under the eave.

Since that time, a number of people have watched the area, but the sparse activity suggests nesting is an unlikely scenario. At any rate, I’ll keep you posted if we find out anything!

The year Sean and I got married, so this would be 1998, our mom’s decided to make the trip from Colorado to Chicago together to spend Mother’s Day with their offspring.

Sean and I are very, very lucky as far as parents/inlaws go. Not only are we very close to our own parents, but we both also genuinely love our inlaws - and vice versa. To top it all off, our parents also really get along with each other. Having lived on this earth now for 40 years, I have heard many horrific tales regarding inlaws from countless friends, family members and various other associates. Believe me, Sean and I know how lucky we are.

This year, mom and Suzy decided to make the trip again. It had been WAY too long. On top of general Mother’s Day celebrating, we had Suzy’s birthday to celebrate and my mom’s retirement after 30 some-odd years as an engineer for the phone company. Big stuff.

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I wish we had nest cameras at ALL of our sites. It is such a very cool thing to be able to take a bit of time out of your work day and click in to watch wild peregrines doing their breeding thang!

Today, I had a busy day here in the Insect department, as we are preparing our collection for a new databasing system at the museum. It’s all very cool and I can’t wait until we have our stuff perfectly cataloged and such.

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