Parliament

September 27th



It’s been a while since I updated on Parliament, been very busy so just catching up with various venues.

I hope everyone is keeping well.

The usual dawn arrival revealed both peregrines immediately over on the Abbey in the early morning murk, the Falcon already feeding on prey, the Tiercel was close by watching her every move.

As the morning advanced, he disappeared to hunt and after resting up, she eventually retired to Central Spire, shortly after a number of Crows started to appear. These are mostly unpaired juvenile/1st year birds, bully boys by nature, they gang up/mob a lot of birds including Birds of Prey. It’s usually Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Common Buzzard, they will often go out of there way, to climb up to mob these particular species being the commoner Raptors in the UK.

They will occasionally mob Peregrines, especially when perched, where they have the advantage of being more agile and manoeuvrable, but I am yet to see a Crow go up and challenge a Peregrine aloft in open sky.Its simply too dangerous with the Peregrines built in aggression, size and power, especially when breeding.

This eventually happened when around a dozen flew to Parliament, with the Tiercel away, it’s usually his job to clear them if they get to close, she initially ignored them. However, as they got nearer to the Riverside Tower nest site, it was obviously too much, and she went for them and cleared them off Parliament. Try as I might I could not get a photo of all this, simply too fast, as you can imagine though, quite spectacular to watch.

As much as I love my D500/F5.6 200-500mm combination, there are times that call for my old F4 300mm lens, the auto focus and speed was far quicker.

                                                                   Crow - Sparrowhawk

                                                   Crows a gathering on nearby Crane

                                                                      Caching prey

                                                        Falcon clearing the Crows

The visit will also go down to the most birds I have recorded at any one time,(I think) over Parliament or in Victoria Gardens Park, 25 species were recorded.

Highlights were Goldcrest in Victoria Gardens, Grey Wagtail, 3 Meadow Pipits over, 2 sightings of a Sparrowhawk overhead,2 Greylag Geese over along with a Grey Heron flyby.


No Black Redstarts seen, would strongly suspect that they bred somewhere on Parliament given their presence throughout the summer.

A really good visit, they all are, but with good light and the pair active, it is so enjoyable just having the privilege of watching them, even after all these years – 25 on!

As we advance into the winter period, they will likely step up the nocturnal hunting, Woodcock will feature as they move over London amongst other species.