ELGIN — For Gordon Garcia of Bartlett, the recent Friday the 13th was a lucky one. You could also say the day was for the birds.
Garcia — a retiree, amateur nature photographer and birder — was on his way to Central Barber Shop in downtown Elgin that day when he heard unusual animal noises.
“I got my binoculars out of the car, took a look” toward the Elgin Tower Building “and was at that point almost certain what they were,” Garcia said. “I went back with my camera to take some photos on May 14. I posted a photo on IBET” — Illinois Birders Exchanging Thoughts — “and got verification that it was a peregrine falcon.”
Garcia headed back downtown the following Monday and shot more pictures. Suspecting the birds were nesting and not just passing through the area, he emailed Mary Hennen, an ornithologist with the Field Museum in Chicago, who heads the Chicago Peregrine Project.
“One falcon had leg bands, while the other did not appear to have bands,” Garcia said. “I got a little better photo of the leg bands and sent them to Mary to see if she could identify the bird.” He also put his photos online for the whole world to see at
www.pbase.com/gordg3/eagles_hawks_osprey_and_falcons.
Hennen intends to come out to Elgin soon to see for herself. She said the Elgin pair is among the 23 duos duly noted on the Chicago Peregrine Project website (fieldmuseum.org/explore/illinois-peregrines) as having habitats in Illinois.
“Illinois’ peregrine population has gone from extirpation in the state by 1951, to one pair in 1988 to a current level (2011) of 23 territories,” the Field site states.
There are about 400 to 500 pairs nesting east of the Mississippi River, Hennen said. That’s actually a historically high number. This type of falcon prefers the West because it typically lives along cliffs.
According to the Peregrine Watch website (falconcam.travelers.com), because of the widespread use of the pesticide DDT, “the population disappeared east of the Mississippi by 1965. Success of the Eastern Peregrine Recovery Plan in recent years has helped restore populations of the peregrine falcon.”
Food, habitat here
What drew the falcons to Elgin was the ledges and architecture of the tallest building in town, at Chicago Street and North Grove Avenue, and its location close to the food source that is the Fox River, Hennen said.
Because of what they like to eat, “Peregrine falcons have also been called duck hawks,” Hennen said.
The peregrines nab their prey in flight, so their diet consists of other birds and an occasional bat. They also are the fastest known animal, moving at a 200 mph clip when they dive-bomb on prey.
Hennen said peregrine falcons can live about 20 years in captivity and 14 to 16 years in the wild. Youngsters usually stay in the nest for four to six weeks before they take their first flight. Fledglings are dependent on their parents for food for about a month more before they hunt for themselves. And 60 percent of peregrines don’t make it to their first birthday, Hennen said.
Hennen mentioned that peregrines are messy eaters, a fact that led Tower Building maintenance supervisor Chris Mains to them.
Mains said falcons actually have been seen along the building for about six years. He first noticed them back then while working on an unoccupied office on the 14th floor.
“I looked out the window, and thought it was snow. It turned out those were feathers falling,” Mains said.
Messy birds
Over the years, Mains had debates with late downtown merchant Pat Keeney, who thought the birds were hawks. About three years ago, Mains took up photography, snapped a few shots and did some online research, which led him to surmising the birds were peregrines — and maybe the same pair, because such birds usually mate for life.
Mains said Tower tenants occasionally complain as the falcons leave heads, wings, guts and other fowl parts strewn about the exterior of the building. The crow-sized falcons also screech and have been known to swoop within a few feet of a person when they feel their territory is being threatened.
“I was up not too far from where they are last Wednesday, and it was nerve-wracking,” Mains said. That might be because there is a nest on the higher reaches of the building. Mains said it had three eggs, but one had broken.
Mains speculated that downtown developments over the last couple of years might be why more people have noticed the peregrines. Those include workers more frequently needing access to the roof to complete cellphone tower network upgrades, and more tenants in the Tower Building.
“The paver bricks the city put in as sidewalks also make it more easy to see bird poop,” Mains said.
Resurgence of nature
The falcons are among several formerly out-of-the-ordinary species noticed locally in recent years, giving clue that nature is at the very least adaptive and resilient, if not making a comeback in the area.
Hawks, including the red-tail, have been spotted, as have turkey vultures, which enjoy eating road kill.
More and more eagles have been seen the past few winters, most notably this year near Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin and in trees near the Fox River in Carpentersville and East Dundee. Big flathead catfish are more and more common in the river, too.
In January, out in the Providence subdivision on the city’s far west side, “My wife snapped a picture, and EPD Animal Control had it verified by the DNR,” said Elgin Community Development Director Marc Mylott. “Bigger and thicker than a coyote, we were told it probably was a wolf.”
While the above all have been verified, a handful of people also are convinced that a few years ago, a panther was lurking somewhere off Plank Road west of Elgin. But found fur in the area turned out to be from a black house cat, and there have been no recent claims of a big feline on the prowl.
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