Thursday, May 7, 2009
Literary Falcons in Evanston
Nature lovers in the family might be interested in the peregrine falcons that nest on Evanston Public Library. This is the sixth year we have had peregrines nesting there. This year the pair had four eggs. Three hatched on Tuesday and the fourth hatched this morning. The library has a webcam focused on the nest. It's still images, not video, but it updates every few minutes (except when something is wrong with it--which, unfortunately, is often). The nest is unlighted, so you can only see things during daylight hours. Anyway, if you go to epl.org/falconcam, you can see the four chicks, if one of the parents is not brooding them, or maybe see a parent feeding them. They will probably be in the nest for about six weeks, so you can watch them develop. Once they fledge, they will not come back to the nest, so that will be it for the year. After that, we see them around downtown Evanston through the summer, learning to fly from building to building, screaming for their parents to feed them, and then learning to hunt for themselves.
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3 comments:
Awww. The chicks look like cotton balls huddled under the parent. Are they visible from the building, or only on camera?
There are peregrines on some of the buildings in downtown Chicago, although I've never seen any there. I did see one last year on 47th Street near King Drive. It swooped down and caught a sparrow in its talons in mid-air, then landed. The falcon sat still for a minute or two on top of the sparrow, until the sparrow broke free and flew away. My coworker and I couldn't tell whether the falcon slipped or let its prey go on purpose. The falcon didn't appear to be in any hurry to kill or eat the sparrow. Do falcons ever hunt just for fun?
The nest is in a depression on top of a column, so they are only visible on the webcam. When they get closer to fledging, they hop up on the ledge around the nest, and then you can see them from inside the building, or outside, in front of the library. Then, before they take their first flight from the library, they usually tumble/fall/glide down to a planter box outside a second-floor window of the library. By then, they are almost as big as their parents.
They do typically hunt on the wing and catch their prey in midair. We have been watching falcons around Evanston for about ten years, and we have seen them hunt or fly by with a kill in their talons, but we've never actually witnessed a strike. You must have been in the right (or wrong, depending on your viewpoint) place at the right time, Kris.
Interesting question about them hunting just for fun. I would hope not--I hate to see animals being as wasteful as humans--but I don't know. One possibility is that it was a young falcon learning how to hunt. Maybe once it got the sparrow it was so surprised it didn't know what to do next!
We didn't witness the exact moment of the strike. There were two fast-moving birds in a chase overhead, but we were focused on the street and not looking directly at them. By the time we realized what was happening, the falcon had already caught the sparrow (or some kind of smaller bird) and was starting to land with the prey in its talons. It was only a few seconds from the time the birds appeared in our peripheral vision to the time the falcon landed. Neither of us is an expert on wild birds, so we had to look it up later. We're fairly certain it was a peregrine.
That's a good theory about a young falcon learning to hunt. And watching falcons tumbling into a planter box as they learn to fly sounds very entertaining!
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