Recent Peregrine Stuff

 

With Peregrine breeding now in full swing, many of the sites that I monitor now have chicks and thoughts will soon turn to fledging as the end of May/June draws ever closer.

As we know sadly Battersea Power Station failed, the age of the Falcon at 12+ finally catching up with her, with the density of single peregrines in London now, I would suspect she will before long be replaced. A pity with the new permanent nest box full accepted, indeed the Falcon spends much of her time sleeping/roosting in it now, a very strong bond.

                                                      Early a.m - Tiercel on nest ledge

                                            Falcon at roost in nest box- this morning 1.07a.m

Last Sunday May 14th I, Shaun and Paul ringed at 2 peregrine sites in London where we have placed nest boxes, both boxes were fully accepted early on and deciding to check them early under licence proved the right move.

The 3 of us have started a new colour ringing project, 3 black numerals on a white background and we used these for the first time, chicks were a perfect size for ringing, and it was a good start to the project with 7 chicks ringed.

On Friday 19th at Parliament, we checked under licence, the nest site on the eastern facing Balcony after recording a nest relief here on April 5th.

                                                Falcon appearing from incubation below

                                                         Tiercel just arrived with prey

                                                              Falcon retreiving prey

A bit of a story here if you recall from previous Parliament updates, with works due to start shortly on Victoria Tower prior to the breeding season, as mitigation, another new nest box was placed on a separate Tower along with a landing/juvenile exercise platform. As soon as this was in situ, the current nest box was dropped down and closed off, the obvious idea being that the Falcon, who as we know is a new one and possibly young, would go straight into the new position.

Unfortunately, she didn’t, showing at times just how unpredictable as a species they can be, she ignored the new position and laid eggs on the floor, not ideal but it sometimes happens with females, especially young ones.

Sadly, we found 2-3 broken eggs, scattered unfortunately as they had no doubt rolled and cracked.

A sad end, hopefully it will change next year.