Battersea Power Station

Quite an eventful visit last Sunday, great weather for a change and thankfully the recent high winds had reduced making it a very pleasant morning.

It is quite a saga that is occurring, the immature Peregrine, is not looking to leave and is holding to the Tower for security, the reason being the new adult Tiercel is attacking him most time’s when he flies out from the Tower. My initial early thoughts when the new Tiercel showed up on previous updates were that the Falcon was protecting the immature, this is not the case, she is not interfering and leaving the immature to face the adult Tiercel. The immature is holding to the Tower and hiding either inside or outside the nest box knowing that he is relatively safe there, the adult Tiercel cannot directly attack him next to the Falcon, something I suspect that the immature is aware of. Instead the adult Tiercel drifts around at distance watching for the immature to leave/or trying to lure him out.

Falcon

Immature holding to the Tower - Falcon looking on

Falcon

Falcon after a Crow inside.

Immature

Immature being ambushed by Tiercel

As soon as he leaves the protection of the Tower the adult Tiercel appears and is on him, this happened at least 5 times during the course of Sunday morning; the adult when not drifting around aloft spends his time east sitting on buildings on Riverlight and beyond.

I did not see him alight anywhere on Battersea Power Estate, certainly not on the Tower otherwise I would have seen him on the CCTV also, it’s an unusual scenario.

Lots of permutations here as I see it.

As it stands.

1. Is the immatures presence now stopping the Falcon fully bonding and breeding with the new chap?

2. We know that copulation has taken place with the adult Tiercel, will she still allow the immature to stay even if she lays?

3. If she does lay eggs/young who will incubate/feed young when she is off feeding herself - Adult or immature Tiercel if the adult cannot move him on.

Different scenario's, it boils down to the fact that the adult Tiercel, given what I saw on Sunday, has to displace the immature to bond properly. I am hoping that the immature will just go really, he is putting up a fight that much is obvious, however the adult Tiercel certainly seems faster and likely stronger, it’s possible that he will come off second best and he could likely be injured or worse.

Adult Tiercel after the immature

Safety in numbers

Time will tell........