Battersea Latest

 

With the entire scaffold now de rigged on all faces of the Power Station, the pair have immediately renewed their familiarity with all the brickwork ledges and niches. They are already caching prey on it, in particular on the northern face; a recent visit also showed copulation so breeding looks promising.

The scaffold has been in situ for 3+ years with the normal monoflex covering, to retain their bond at all times, exterior scaffold boards were sporadically placed, these worked well and the pair used them frequently. The exterior boards have benefited also on other peregrine construction sites; they have used them to roost, rest, cache and feed on, they also help retain the connection to the ‘core’ site.

                                                     Exterior boards have worked well

On a recent visit, arriving in darkness I could see them roosting on the brickwork, no doubt the northern face gives a lot of shelter from our predominately southerly, south westerly and westerly winds. I would also suspect the brickwork throws out heat, on cold winter nights out of the cutting winds, this very likely gives them a degree of comfort. None of us like sitting in a cold wind, they are much the same.

                                         Just about viewable in early Feb - bigger Falcon right

More recently however, I noticed something else on another date, some of the faces of the Power Station are illuminated with lights, it makes the grand old building look even more fantastic of a night.

On February 9th when I arrived early a.m found them both roosting right next to the lights, on the north west wash tower, in particular the Falcon was relatively close. There is no doubt that the strip of lights will throw out a level of heat, had both consciously roosted in this position to gain the benefits on cold winter nights?

Only seen it once but having said that, the scaffold hasn’t been down long, it will be interesting to see if it happens again and is not just a one off. They are an incredible resilient species and it could possibly be the latest line in adaptive behaviour.

                                                                            Falcon

                                                                              Pair

                                                                             Tiercel

In regards to the juvenile last seen on December 30th, there is no sign; it looks like he finally got the message. If you recall the levels of aggression from his Dad had gone through the roof with full on attacks, hopefully he decided that leaving was the best choice.