Battersea June 26th

 

I had planned on a Sunday visit last weekend, but unfortunately the male Peregrine, colour ringed ABB got himself into a bit of trouble over on One Nine Elms on Thursday afternoon.

He was found as I understand it, on the 57 Storey Tower Block situated just down river at Vauxhall, the section he got himself trapped in aloft, was empty and had glass sides 2.5 metres high.
55 floors up, it was only by luck that he was spotted by the building's staff, how long he had been there is not known either.

Stuart from LPP was contacted, he then rescued and released him and he immediately flew straight back to the Power Station.

Glass balconies and Peregrines as we know simply do not mix, throw in 30 degree temperatures, and I doubt he would have lasted long up there without being rescued so well done to all involved.

Hence my Friday visit to confirm he was ok and indeed, had made it back.

Very glad to confirm that he is indeed safe and sound, none the worse for his ordeal and normal service resumed, providing prey for his 16 year old mate!
Hopefully he will learn from it, I would suspect chasing a Feral Pigeon, or even clashing with his father from Parliament, Vauxhall marks the territorial boundary of both pairs.

Prey was taken by the male, a Feral Pigeon, very early a.m which was immediately taken from him by the female, she then fed but as you will see from the photos, he kept the pressure on trying to get his share.

Elsewhere, the male Black Redstart was singing strongly at the northern end, singing late June often signifies 2nd brooding.
As it was June and with the extreme heat, I was not expecting a good number of birds for the day list, I ended up with 26 so not too bad. For some species now, most have fledged and that will be it for the year, but for some, like the Black Redstarts, they will usually go again 2nd brooding.

Goldfinches were around as usual, the colourful little Finch have started to flock already as many have finished breeding, if you recall we have had flocks in the winter up to 25.

                                                                      Male arriving

                                                                            Pair

                                                          Patiently waiting whilst she feeds

                                                                           Trapped!

                                                              One Nine Elms downriver

                                                                        Painted Lady 

Highs and Lows

Last week started off with visits to Parliament on Sunday and Tuesday, the 3 juveniles had fledged looking on the CCTV, but sadly I could only locate 1 female juvenile – colour ringed ACX.

I am obviously going to visit again to check, its entirely possible that on both visits, one or both may have slipped away following the male hunting if flying strongly enough.

I will have another look, but City fledging is not easy, so many pitfalls waiting for them, grounding/foxes, trapped in small areas unable to get out, glass balconies, glass reflection, water and so on.

Following on from this we fostered another female juvenile from South London, Paul firstly ringed her, this was after Sue/Tom and the team at SEWH, did their usual fantastic work and got her back ship shape.

The nest site was not known, so a safer bet was decided on, foster her at a site which has always worked over the years.
A good release back, another juvenile locked onto her straight away and she didn’t fly and stayed near the nest box, a good result.



On Friday I had the very sad task of picking up 2 dead juvenile Peregrines that had drowned, male and female siblings, a very unfortunate tragic end to their brief lives.

Having conquered initial fledging and flying and landing strongly, no doubt I would expect they were very likely tail chasing each other, lost track/position of where they were and crashed into the water.

This is the only thing that springs to mind, unless it was calm and they thought the water was solid, not being aware of the danger?



Our new blue colour ringing scheme for Kestrels has worked very well, with the first nest site fledging last week. Paul ringed them as part of the Hawk Conservancy Scheme using there blue rings on our boxes.

So far if I recall correctly we have ringed at 5 nest sites, a good result.

                                                                    Parliament - ACX

                               

                                 Blue ringed Kestrel juveniles - adults seem to like Barnie boxes!

                                                            On her way to be fostered

                                                                            Freedom

                                                                        A sad sight

 

Mobbing - paying the price

 

 

Over my 26 years of watching Peregrines, I like to think I have recorded most activities when it comes to Peregrines clashing with Crows, over the weekend I witnessed something different.

I have seen Crows knocked down by Peregrines before on 4 occasions, on all it was from a dive with the peregrine, in all cases a female, striking a wing or head. I have also retrieved Common Buzzards killed in the same way at nest sites.

I was at a Thameside nest site on Sunday very early a.m which had just successfully fledged 3 juveniles, a juvenile male in particular was already flying and landing strongly. On one of his sorties aloft, he came to the attention of 4 Crows, they were mobbing the juv male as he was making his way back to the nest site.

I knew where the adult Falcon had been sitting keeping an eye on him and the other 2, however she had gone.

I then picked her up heading straight for the Crows head on, on seeing her coming they did an about turn and headed back towards the river. As I do, I tried to get the camera on her keeping her in focus which to say the least was a challenge and I failed.

She missed on her first grab at a Crow but such was her speed, she then cast up to gain height, and then came back down with me just about staying on her with the camera.

As she neared the Crows, who were now trying to clear the buildings and head out over the Thames she hit one from the dive, I had lots of structures in the way and all but one of the following dark photos were out of focus.

With the Crow firmly held by her and stress calling, she headed out over the Thames when the Crow suddenly stopping calling. The last photo I took likely shows the reason why, very likely a neck bite to end it.

With the size and weight of the Crow, and the early hour, she was struggling getting any lift, about 30 metres out into the Thames she dropped it, quite obviously dead into the Thames.

Quite an incredible thing to witness, only one photo came out half decent, the neck bite, the rest are very out of focus but you get the picture.

                                                                Diving for the Crows

                                                                          Grabbed

                                                                        Crow held

                                                         Heading out over the Thames

                                          

                                                       Very likely the neck bite finished it

Spain

Guadalhorce April 30th



We have all been looking forward to this trip, namely Lee, Martin, Paul and myself, it’s becoming a fairly regular excursion, the lure of Spanish birding, socialising with my mates, good food and a drink or 2, makes it quite a special occasion.

We arrived on the 29th from Stanstead and stayed in La Cala, initially undertaking some afternoon local birding, before embarking and heading out on a planned itinerary at dawn the following day at Guadalhorce.

Having studied E Bird lists beforehand, we knew some good birds had been present, the dawn start was also in the hope of getting one of the rarer Herons flying out, and also the hope of connecting with a Red Necked Nightjar or a Barn Owl.

Our previous best total for the morning was 73 species, so a good “carrot” to keep us looking just that little bit harder.

Not surprisingly plenty of Nightingales everywhere and as dawn filtered in, plenty of good birds for the list.

No R N Nightjar/Barn Owl but Night Heron added although Purple/Squacco Heron evaded us all morning as did Great White Egret, all recently on the Reserve.

With daylight in full swing, the tally grew, Woodchat Shrikes were everywhere it seemed and easily into double figures, presumably the Reserve is a stop off before they disperse far and wide.

Nice to again see Greater Flamingo’s on the walk out to the sea, and additionally an adult Peregrine, very likely from the Cathedral as I understand they breed there.

Good numbers of Sandwich Terns as were Mediterranean Gulls, both these species were plentiful with smaller numbers of Slender Billed Gull and Whiskered Tern.



Not much moving on the sea other than a couple of Gannet, a good variety of waders included a couple of Curlew Sandpipers although we missed Wood Sandpiper and Little Stint which were present.

A good mornings birding, the total number of species seen – 73 again!