With a few clicks, Evanston residents can watch baby falcons grow from eggs to birds of prey on the Evanston Public Library’s website.
The webcam, which operates from March to June, watches a nest of two falcons, which are two of 24 of their species in the state. The camera records every moment, from the falcons sitting on their eggs to the chicks finally leaving the nest to start their own families.The same pair of falcons have been nesting on a pillar outside the third floor of the building for three years.
When former library director Neal Ney first noticed falcons nesting at the library about six years ago, they had made their home in a flower box beside the third floor window. Ney covered the window with graph paper to keep visitors from disturbing the birds. An information technology employee recommended setting up a camera so people could watch as the chicks hatched and developed.
After the first year, it was not clear whether the project would continue because the first female broke her wing and only one chick survived, but a new female arrived the following year and the pair has been nesting at the library ever since.
“A new cliff may become more attractive at some point, but I think the likelihood of the birds coming back is pretty high,” Ney said.
The library is hoping to upgrade the camera next year to record continuously, said virtual services librarian David Jordan. The current camera takes only still images every five minutes.
Since the falcons first started nesting at the library, officials have been in contact with Mary Hennen, collections assistant for the Birds Division at the Field Museum and director of the Chicago Peregrine Program. When the chicks are three to four weeks old, Hennen comes to the library, takes blood samples and fits bands on the birds so she can monitor their dispersal.
The EPL never publicizes the banding as an event, but a small crowd usually gathers and watches it, said Donald Westphal, who works in the maintenance department at the EPL. Videos from last year’s banding are available online.
Hennen has been monitoring peregrine falcons in Illinois for 20 years. In 1951, the species was completely wiped out in the state because of poisoning from a pesticide used on crops and in forests that made the birds’ egg shells so thin females would break their own eggs while trying to incubate them.
In 1972, the federal government banned the pesticide and the species began recovering about 20 years later, Hennen said. Now, the state touts 24 of the falcons.
That may not seem like a large number, but Hennen said the falcons are no longer considered endangered in the state.
