Battersea Power Station

 

April 9th



Hi, a rather cold morning, overcast in the morning which seemed to affect bird numbers, certainly some of the regular species were a lot harder to find, 5 degrees putting a dampener on early breeding activity.

Peregrines

The female at 14 is still present, I would have expected her to have been replaced a good while ago, it seems it's not going to happen again for this breeding season, although it still could. Last successful breeding was 2021 with 3 juveniles fledged, however she has been a great female producing 22 juveniles since 2013, a superb effort, time marches on though and age has caught up.

It's not for want of trying to breed on the Tiercel's part, but the Falcon is no longer receptive to copulation as you will see from the photos.

As I have mentioned before, it's a shame with both having accepted the new nest box position totally.

                                                        Nest Position totally accepted

                                                       Tiercel - still trying to breed

Elsewhere, the male Black Redstart was singing initially, but likely then thought better of it with the cold temperatures, I didn't see him at all.

The Gardens aloft were unusually quiet also which I would put down to the cold, hardly any birds seen up there.

Birds that were very apparent were Grey Wagtails, paired up, we again have 2 pairs along with a pair of Pied Wagtail, all were investigating the River Wall where breeding has taken place every year.