Dave Mo Birding: Battersea Power Statin

Sunday, 22 March 2026

Battersea Power Statin - March

March 2026

I visited on Saturday 14th in superb weather and it will go down as a barmy, and quite incredible morning regarding the female Peregrine.

Where to start, at the grand old age of 16 she has got herself a mate! Remarkably it is a male that Paul white colour ringed(ABB numerals) on May 28th 2024 at Parliament from a brood of 4. This was also the over staying juvenile Peregrine who stayed into 2025 at Parliament, the last time I saw him was at the end of April 2025 at Parliament.

He has bonded with her and is already in the nest box a number of times, displaying as well as attempting copulation, however at 16 she refused him.

On top of this there is another male trying his luck and challenging the new male, often going overhead and displaying to the female cutting some shapes, he is spending a lot of his time over on the Thames Water Tower. The 2 males are clashing which is to be expected.

It then got even crazier, as our resident, now paired female was arriving with very large Pigeon prey, she was then attacked by another Peregrine, by size another obvious female.

This female was consequently then driven off by ABB, at the same I checked Thames Water Tower and the 'intruding' male was still in situ resting up. So quite incredibly 4 Peregrines all in view at the same time, how this will all pan out remains to be seen.

When our resident female was attacked by the other female, she dropped the prey, the intruding female could possibly have been after this, the prey landed on top of Jurassic World.
This was eventually retrieved by the resident female and she cached it on one of the lower ledges on the North East Wash tower.

It ties in with all the recent loud stress calling heard by various people, obviously there has been quite a lot going on.

After this I had a look round and can confirm that there were 3 Black Redstarts active together, 2 full adult males scrapping over a female.

A pair of Grey Wagtails were active in the River Wall, no activity in the nest boxes as yet.

With full sunshine, it reflected in the birds recorded, I managed 34 species which if I recall correctly is the most I have had in one day, it usually hovers around 28-30 every month.
Greenfinch and Collared Dove were recorded, both not common here and a welcome addition to the year list.

Getting ever closer, the life list hovers on 99!

However the day will go to the Peregrines, where this new female came from I don't know, I hadn't seen her previous to this. It could be that she was just passing and seeing an opportunity to steal prey, or even challenge the resident female, by April I will know far more. March is the time of year when they look for territories for themselves so all this activity ties in with this.

The resident female is ringed and on camera which is how I know it is the same female, she arrived as an adult in the winter of 2011/12, so it’s possible she could even be older than 16.

Presumably she was colour ringed at some time but likely snapped off, I have some of the numerals of the metal ring but not enough to confirm where she came from.

Even for me who has been watching them for 26 years, it will go down as quite an extraordinary day.