One of the added bonus’s in visiting London’s Peregrines is that it gives me the chance to see much more wildlife in many urban areas. There are some unique sites in London that have not only Peregrines, but also Black Redstarts, Grey Wagtails and Kestrels all breeding under the same roof.
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| Male Black Redstart - a stunning looking bird (click on photos too enlarge) |
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| Grey Wagtail |
All of these are specialist urban breeders and there seems to be no interaction between any of them, especially, as mentioned earlier in the blog, Peregrines and Kestrels.
All of them carry on as per normal despite the threat from Peregrines above, it is business as usual.
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| Peregrine - high level hunter |
Unfortunately many Brownfield sites are disappearing all along the Thames, the pressure on East London and Metropolitan Essex is immense, my local patch, Barking Bay will be gone in a few years time as the whole area is being regenerated. It will only increase when we eventually come out of the recession.
Peregrines I know will be around in 10 years time, god knows how many pairs, but I wonder if Kestrels will survive in Central and Inner London with habitat and food loss, hopefully they will. I certainly don’t see them in the numbers that I used to 5 years ago, most pairings seem to bordering, or in the Royal Parks. It makes you wonder what they are feeding on, certainly not Sparrows.
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| Kestrel - low level hunter |
Along with Peregrines, Kestrels are a favourite bird, I hope the little 'mouse hawk' survives in Inner London.
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