The Week

 

 Kestrels

Another good year for the little mouse hawk, to give it its olden name, this year they have 5 chicks no less at Beckton Sewage Works! These photos were taken on June 4th, so shouldn’t be to far off fledging now, I will pop in and see them on Sunday.

In contrast the Quarry birds, I can see 4 definitely, there could be another hidden at the back, this photo was taken on June 9th, these will fledge I would suspect next week onwards.

Little Owls

This was a new box placed a couple of years back, which I relocated as I was not happy with the original position, very pleased to say it came up trumps.

Getting nest boxes accepted as you know is what floats my boat, and Little Owls can be tricky in getting them to take to a box, in many cases due to the constant pressure from Grey Squirrels and keeping them out of the box.

However very pleased to say, that they liked the new position so much they used it and Caroline, Shaun, Paul and myself ringed 2 chicks there on June 7th, little stunners as usual. The Squirrels did try in the box bringing foliage halfway up inside, but then must have abandoned, had a good chew at the hole as well.

Peregrines

I got a call out on Friday regarding a juvenile fledger, it’s that time of year again after it was seen sitting on a fence the previous evening but then disappeared.

I knew there were 3 siblings, 2 I located on arrival feeding high up, it was just a question then of locating the 3rd.Walking the grounds and surrounding area initially for 40 minutes produced nothing, the obvious danger to grounders are Foxes, this is always in my head. I have found feathers from juveniles in the past, where Foxes have got to them, but thankfully not this time, it is nature and Foxes are just doing what they normally do.

In the end I located it by sound, and she eventually showed herself on a residential block not to far from the natal site.

Better than this, after this she then flew, prompted by the Tiercel doing circuits with prey no doubt, returning back to the nest site.

All good so I left them to it.