Terrific photo! Thank you!
I have to say that when I saw the subject of this thread I expected to find pictures of naked birds; came here in some trepidation.

The situation may be different for some reason, but Evanston is right on the border of Chicago, and lots and lots of people are interested in the falcons. The banding is always on a weekday morning; it's announced in the media, on the internet, open to the public and press, and takes place on the third floor of a library. It gets a bit crowded, but nothing at all out of hand that I ever saw. The Field Museum folks bring the eyases down, take blood, band them, answer questions, pose for a photo op . . . no one rushes the banding table or acts obnoxious . . . so it's possible. There are always a bunch of parents who bring their kids, and they get to come closer.

I didn't get to go this year - no longer live on that side of the city and was working . . . too bad...

There is a big difference between a building owned, used, and staffed by a singe entity; and a building rented out to many small, budget-conscious law offices whose clients may want to avoid crowds.

Banding at TSB is not done in a big public space typical of a library. It's done in a vacant (abandoned?) office on an upper floor that can't be reached by elevator. The only other option would be to do it in the stairwell. Neither are optimal for spectators. It would be a situation just asking for something to go wrong

And that's how things get out of hand.

Nothing might go wrong, but that's definitely a different sort of location!!  A library is so welcoming and already-public -- open and set up for and insured for the public. What you're describing is entirely different, of course!

The situation may be different for some reason, but Evanston is right on the border of Chicago, and lots and lots of people are interested in the falcons. The banding is always on a weekday morning; it's announced in the media, on the internet, open to the public and press, and takes place on the third floor of a library. It gets a bit crowded, but nothing at all out of hand that I ever saw. The Field Museum folks bring the eyases down, take blood, band them, answer questions, pose for a photo op . . . no one rushes the banding table or acts obnoxious . . . so it's possible. There are always a bunch of parents who bring their kids, and they get to come closer.

I didn't get to go this year - no longer live on that side of the city and was working . . . too bad...

Has this been posted already? I couldn't find it.

"This crow is flying for its life... as a pair falcons home in for the kill. The chase was captured on video by a tiny camera mounted on the head of one of the falcons. Within seconds the crow is caught in midair and dragged to the ground. The falcon cam video is part of research project conducted by Suzanne Amador Kane. She wanted to study the physics behind how these predators hunt so efficiently. She enlisted the help of falconers around the world who were willing to attach tiny head and back-mounted cameras to their birds as they hunted..."

video:
http://www.reuters.com/video/2014/01/15/falcon-cam-reveals-raptor-attack-strateg?videoId=276444972&videoChannel=1000

Splain this??

looks like a chicken from the grocery store got under there.

http://www.npr.org/2014/05/27/316269112/alaska-man-s-job-is-to-keep-skies-bird-free-for-airplane-takeoffs

Looks like a bee came to visit.  Awesome catch by our main camera!   

I've never seen a photo like that. WOW.

in reverse order:

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
A minimum of four owlets were visible in the far hackberry, all in a begging contest for food. I suspect all five are there.
14m

 Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlet 5 disappeared from the nest box tree while I was tweeting. Best guess is that it took no. 2’s direct path to the far hackberry.
28m

 Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlet 5 is in the nest box tree, and just went  ... Somewhere....
34m

 Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlet 5 is out.

he's still there, too.

Chris writes:

I'm all for owlet 5 waiting until it is good and ready to leave, but I'm beginning to wonder if it'll have cable installed instead.

just now, all alone

owlet 5's day alone yesterday, according to the dailies, was mostly spent inspecting his own legs, with short breaks for climbing the walls and mugging for the cam

May 3 – Owlet no. 4 left the nest at 3:42 AM (on the same night owlet no. 3 left the nest, just on a different side of midnight). Neither 3 nor 4 made the remarkable flights to the hackberry trees at the back of my yard that nos. 1 and 2 did. Instead, they headed off to the side, first into a crepe myrtle tree that abuts the nest box tree, and from there through two of my neighbor's trees (in the latter of which they spent the day to the consternation of many of the local songbirds). After sunset, their dual food begging from that tree made their location clear.

Owlets 1 and 2 remain, presumably, in the hackberries and adjoining trees, since those provide much better cover and far more scope for movement. (Also, every year's owlets end-up in those hackberries, probably for the aforementioned reasons.)

Owlet no. 4’s exit left no. 5 alone in the nest box. Rather than encouraging no. 5 to leave the nestbox, Mme. Owl seems to have gone to extra lengths to look after him/her in the nest, delivering a mouse that night, and visiting the nest box on three occasions during the day. (Which is probably the reason that the local songbirds were aware of the location of nos. 3 and 4; Mme. Owl was probably roosting with them in between her visits to the nest box. If so, her mate would have been roosting with nos. 1 and 2.)

owlet 5, 11 pm central time - ain't going nowhere

Thanks, Ei, for posting that, I was about to.
pffffft indeed.

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlet 4 left the nest. I was sleeping, or I'd've noticed a thing like that.

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Found an owlet that I presume to be no. 4, safe in a fork of the nest box tree.

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlet 5 is currently receiving assistance from Mme. Owl in eating a mouse.

a small drama, with props:

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlet 3 is out of the nest box.

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlets 1 and 2 can be seen climbing in the hackberries. Owlet 3 is still on the owlet rail.

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlet 3 is in the nest box tree.

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owl attack took off my glasses. Can't see a thing, including where the glasses might be.

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Found glasses. Owlet 3 still in nest box tree.

Chris W. Johnson @ChrisOwlCam
Owlet 3 has used the same path through the nest box tree as owlet 1 did. But hasn’t decided where to go from there.