It's been awhile since I've had a chance to drop a line on what's been happening with the peregrines. Much has been going on during the past few weeks that has kept us hopping. Mostly that's because it's banding season.

We've already been at 4 sites - Waukegan, Pilson, Uptown & Wacker. Banding is important for a number of reasons. First, the bands provide us with a means of looking at both dispersal and longevity. By reading the bands of adults I can tell where the birds originally came from and how old they are. For example, the adults at the Wacker building are Jingles, a male released in 1986 in Chicago, and Dory, a female born in a wild nest in Milwaukee in 1996.

The best time to band the peregrines are as young in the nest. When the chicks are 21-24 days old, they're physically as big as they are going to get but the flight feathers have not come in yet. So, I can put bands on the legs and not worry that the legs will grow too big for the bands. Also, when grabbing the chicks I don't have worry about prematurely fledging the birds.

The other thing that occurs during banding is that we're able to take a small blood sample from each of the chicks. This is used for both genetic research and a biochemical study, while a small portion of a feather is saved for contaminant analysis.

So, what have we found at the nests? Waukegan had 3 boys and 1 girl. (Be sure to check out the webcam while you can - the young should be fledging within the next week!) Pilson had 2 girls and a boy, Uptown had 3 girls and 1 boy, and Wacker had 2 of each - 2 girls and 2 boys. Next week we'll be at a few more sites and I'll let you know what's been happening with some of our adults.