Looking out my window tonight, I was excited to see 3 hawkish birds flying and drifting and swooping off of 1401 S. State building.
Before I moved to this neighborhood, I was excited by the exotic bird life my parents experienced with the parrots (Quaker parrots or monk parakeets) at their bird feeder and thrilled by the year of the owls by South Loop School.
I'm not a birder, so I'm probably more impressed with geographically surprising birds than many would be. But soon after I moved to the South Loop, I was lucky enough to have an adolescent (I'm guessing) Peregrine land on my balcony. I wish I could find pictures of it now...didn't get many, but it was clear that the little lady/feller was working on flying skills with one or two other buddies.
Today, almost exactly 4 years later, I got that same sense of excitement when I spied a group of three birds acting in a similar way around the 1401 building. They had a more gliding/darting/drafting motion than the many smooth-flying seagulls. Plus, they weren't hellbent on flying straight to the lake. I got a couple of pics with the camera as zoomy as it will go (they were pretty far from me), then ramped it up a notch by trying to catch pics through a small telescope. Not the greatest quality, but I was excited that I was able to make it happen at all.It's a beautiful bird. Maybe it was Sloopy the Peregrine Falcon?
(Hat tip: JN!)
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