I have a lot to catch you up on since my last dispatch. First thing, since this is my last dispatch for the season, I want to again thank everyone who has helped make this peregrine season, the webcam, and expedition website a success. You guys are all great!

Also, I want to encourage you to again visit the expedition website. With the fledging of the Waukegan young and the subsequent shutdown of the webcam for this year, we have added a new feature to the expedition. We filmed one of the banding sessions and have added the video to the website in place of the webcam. (see photographs 1-3 for some banding day moments)

We got to band at 7 of our nest sites. While they all have their unique challenges, the basic procedure is what you'll see in the video. In anticipation of some basic questions that come up after people have seen a peregrine being banded for the first time- let me assure you that yes, the parents will take the young back after we've handled them. No, we don't have to worry that the legs are going to outgrow the bands - the young birds are full sized, they just don't have their flight feathers yet. Watch the video and if you have further questions you're always welcome to email me at mhennen@fieldmuseum.org.

We had 10 eyries which successfully fledged at least 1 young bird. One site attempted to nest but failed, and 2 had birds present but we can't confirm any nesting. (which total 13 territories - revisit the expedition map for site details!) Out of our 10 breeding pairs, we had 32 eyasses - 27 of which (85%) fledged. That's a good year.

Keep in mind that for the peregrine recovery to be a success, we need a self-sustaining breeding population. Which means you can't count those chicks that you (Humans) have helped. So how does that effect our totals? Well, for instance you can't count the 4 Wacker chicks because all of them landed on the ground and needed assistance. We drop down to 23 of 32 which is 72% - still pretty good.