Live FalconCam Image:

2013 Saved Images:

May 17—I've got my eye on you!

May 9—Four chicks!

May 9— Nona closeup

May 7—Three chicks!

April 8—Four eggs!

April 4—Three eggs!

April 1—Two eggs!

March 25—Nona and Squawker

March 1 —Exit Nona!

2012 Saved Images:

May 14 —Lunch!

May 7 —Two chicks!

May 3 —First chick!

April 3 —Four eggs.

March 31 —Three eggs.

March 29 —Two eggs.

March 27 —First egg!

Falcons at the Library

Banding, 2004

Peregrine Falcons nested on the Library for the first time in the summer of 2004. That year there were four eggs, but shortly after the eggs hatched the female broke her wing leaving the male to raise the chicks on his own. Only one chick successfully fledged, the other three succumbed to malnourishment and disease. The female with the broken wing received veterinary treatment and now appears in nature education programs.

Chicks in the nest - 2005

In 2005 the same male returned to the Library with a new mate and three chicks fledged successfully. In the fall of 2005 the male broke his wing; despite treatment the wing did not heal and he had to be euthanized. 2005 marked the debut of the FalconCam.

The Evanston Review had an article about the falcons: "Falcon family thrills a rapt library crowd" (Evanston Review, June 30, 2005)

Dashiel, Robinson and May on banding day.

2006 was another good year. Four eggs were laid in mid April, three chicks hatched in mid May and all three fledged successfully between June 27 and 29. For a short while they were seen around Evanston, but they soon dispersed, and their current whereabouts are unknown.

On Monday June 12, 2006 staff and volunteers from the Field Museum banded and took blood samples from the chicks, and they posed for a photograph. One of the three chicks is female and two are male. They were named:

• May — for May Theilgaard Watts the late famed naturalist for Morton Arboretum, an ecology pioneer in the Chicago area
• Dashiell — for Dashiell Hammett the author of the Maltese Falcon
• Robinson — for Robinson Jeffers an American poet who wrote a number of memorable poems about birds of prey

In 2007, there were four chicks, three males and one female.

The birds were named:

• Zipporah — for the wife of Moses. Her name in Hebrew means "little bird."
• Baker — for John Alec Baker an obscure British librarian who wrote a memorable book of nature writing titled Peregrine.
• Horus — for an Egyptian deity usually represented as a falcon or a falcon headed man.
• Boccaccio — for Giovanni Boccaccio the author of The Decameron, which contains a memorable story about a falcon.

In 2008, there was one male and three females [Correction: Mistress Hussey turned out to be male, so there were actually 2 males and 2 females. He was presumed female at the time of banding because there was some doubt as to gender, and Mary Hennen of the Field Museum always errs on the side of female to prevent any chance of a still growing leg becoming constricted by the smaller male band.] The chosen names were:

• 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.

In 2009, The Library peregrine falcons were banded, sampled and named on May 27. Their names are:

• Deborah for Deborah Cohen, a dedicated caretaker of several generations of the Evanston peregrines.
• Aldo for Aldo Leopold, an American ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He was influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and in the movement for wilderness preservation.
• Ean-the Gaelic name for "bird"
• Elinor for Elinor Hoyt Wylie, American poet and novelist who wrote a poem titled "The Falcon."

In 2010, The Library peregrine falcons were banded, sampled and named on May 26. Their names are:

• Lorraine in honor of Lorraine H. Morton, who was a mayor of Evanston from 1993 to 2009.
• Hennen in honor of Mary Hennen, the director of the Chicago Peregrine Program for 19 years.
  
• Perkins after Dwight Perkins who was known as the "father" of the Cook County Forest Preserve System.

The names of the four 2011 eyases (EYE-ah-sez) are:

• Wilbur - named after Wilbur, the runt pig in E.B. White's Charlotte's Web. The runt of the litter, Wilbur is saved from a terrible fate by his friend Charlotte the spider.
• Lincoln - named after Abraham Lincoln, a famous Illinois resident and our 16th president. He led the nation through Civil War and brought an end to slavery in the United States.
• Dewey - named after Melvil Dewey, American librarian and reformer. Dewey established the Dewey decimal system of classifying books and played a prominent role in developing professional institutions for librarians.
• Rosalind - the central character of Shakespeare's As You Like It. Some critics call Rosalind one of the most complex, fully realized Shakespearean characters. As an added bonus, there is a falcon reference in As You Like It (Act 3, Scene 3 - Touchstone: "As the ox hath his bow, sir, the horse his curb and the falcon her bells, so man hath his desires; and as pigeons bill, so wedlock would be nibbling.")

A quick video of the return to the pillar cap after the banding.

The names of the two 2012 eyases are Gribley (male) and Marigold (female).

More on Peregrine Falcons

For the latest in breaking peregrine research:

The Peregrine Fund World Center for Birds of Prey
Has photos, an online research library and newsletter about peregrines and other raptors.

Peregrine Falcons- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Brief facts about the peregrine.

The Canadian Peregrine Foundation
Has a raptor photo identification gallery, live webcams, and a reference page on peregrine biology.

The Raptor Center
Sponsored by the University of Minnesota's College of Veterinary Medicine,this site has information about what to do with an injured raptor, a section on the birds the center has treated, reports on peregrine falcons, and migration tracking maps. Users can view pictures and movies, and listen to individual bird sounds.

For further information about Peregrine Falcons see:

Web Sites:

Peregrine Falcons" from the Encyclopedia of Life

The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology; Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus.

The Field Museum's web site about the reintroduction of Peregrines to the Chicago area.

The Chicago Wilderness article "How Peregrines Learned to Hack the Big City"

Adult Books in the Library's Collection:

Tennant, Alan. On the Wing : To the Edge of the Earth with the Peregrine Falcon. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
Tennant relates wild adventures while radio tracking Arctic Peregrines on their migratory journeys.

Baker, John Alec. The Peregrine. New York, Harper & Row, 1967.
One of the most remarkable pieces of nature writing. Baker, untrained in ornithology, devoted ten years of his life to studying Peregrine Falcons near his home in England.

Children's Books in the Library's Collection:

Unwin, Mike. Peregrine Falcon. Chicago, Ill., Heinemann Library, 2004.

Wechsler, Doug. Peregrine Falcons. New York, Rosen Pub. PowerKids Press, c2000.

Jenkins, Priscilla Belz. Falcons Nest on Skyscrapers. New York, HarperCollins, 1996.

Green, Carl R. The Peregrine Palcon. Mankato, Minn., Crestwood House, 1986.

Arnold, Caroline. Saving the Peregrine Falcon. Minneapolis, Carolrhoda Books, 1985.