A Very Lucky Peregrine

Quite an eventful weekend covering several Peregrine Sites, I also witnessed some remarkable behaviour from a female juvenile.

Whilst watching on Sunday I heard the unmistakable sound of juvenile peregrines, on locating the source of the noise, no less than 3 juv Peregrines greeted me coming across the Thames, one with prey.
What alarmed me was the fact that an obvious female had the prey, she wouldn't give it up from the attention of the other 2, and in doing so, all were getting precariously near the water at times.

The inevitable happened and the female with the prey crashed into the water, my heart sank as I thought that's her lot. All the Gulls etc scattered, and I was thankful that no Great Black Backed Gulls were in the area, one or more would very likely kill her on the water.

However, all was not lost, floating now around 40 metres from rocks, she then started half flapping with her wings towards land, a semi swimming/flying action. As I willed her on, and despite quite obviously tiring with wet wings/body, she unbelievably made it to the Rocks!

Now just slightly just out of view in a position I couldn’t access, I kept an eye on this area, eventually a very wet juvenile emerged and flew out strongly over the river low and then gained height over my head.



I took photos as I always do and can confirm that it was no other than the female ADJ which I fostered on June 18th!

Ringed by Paul after the usual fantastic work by South Essex Wildlife Hospital to give her another chance, she is an incredibly lucky bird.

Absolutely fantastic to see her fully integrated into her new family, obviously not the ditching, hopefully she will learn her lesson from this, an exceptionally lucky Peregrine leading a charmed life it seems.

In June I picked up 2 drowned juveniles.

                                                    Being harassed by other juveniles

                                                                          Ditching

                                                                  A very wet ADJ

 

Local Raptors

Female Sparrowhawk and Male Marsh Harrier seen fairly recently locally, both hunting, watched the Male Marsh Harrier for quite a while as it went over, it ranges a long way from where I suspect its from.

As Autumn approaches, hoping for a Honey Buzzard to add to the List or even an Osprey.

Foster Update - Beckton Sewage Works

 

Foster Update


I purposely visited, not surprisingly given the heat, very early a.m recently to see how the foster female, colour ringed ADJ, was getting on adjusting to her new siblings/adults.

Absolutely no worries there, she's already mixing it up with the other siblings, chasing the adult female around with prey. All part of the learning process as we know but absolutely fantastic, seeing her with her new family and 100% accepted.

This if I recall correctly makes it the 5th foster over the years, Paul having recently fostered another at a different site that went well.

Both were colour ringed, hopefully both will show up in the future.

                                                         Fingers crossed for there future

Beckton Sewage Works

No less than 5 Kestrel chicks have fledged from the Sewage Works, all are flying well now which is great, another good brood for the pair. I had originally thought that there were 3 for this year, so a very nice surprise being proved wrong.

On further searching around, as you know the Sewage Works is massive, I then found another 2 fledged Kestrels at the northern section of the site. I haven't got a clue where these nested, but will hopefully soon get a nest box up for them.

I also caught up with my 1st brood of Shelducks for the year.

Hopefully these will all make it, judging by the Drakes behaviour they have a good chance, nothing got near them.

                                                          The 5 Kestrel youngsters

                                                               Harbour Seal at Beckton

                                                                         New Brood

 
                                                                  Shelduck Brood

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