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.

Spain - Guadalhorce Reserve April 28th

Armed with a Fiat 500 hire car, I headed out an hour before dawn on the 28th eventually arriving at Guadalhorce just after dawn. I say eventually, as normal I got lost and spent an extra 10 - 15 minutes or so, trying to get to the other side of Malaga Airport. Although dark, the plan was to keep the Med on my right and I can’t go wrong, sod’s law.

All good fun however, found a location to park and headed out along the river towards the sea, accessing the Reserve from the sea end. It was not my intention, having visited in 2019 with Lee and Mart, my compass was a little bit out and instead of finding the bridge onto the Reserve, I ended up at the sea end.

En route I had around 50 Glossy Ibis leaving the Reserve from roost, possibly from there or further afield, after this many species started giving themselves up, Nightingale for one, great to hear a number from the Reserve.

Reaching the sea didn’t produce the hoped for passing Cory’s Shearwater but did provide a couple of passing Gannets.

As I entered the Reserve, I spied 7 whitish Egret type birds coming in off the Sea, this turned out to remarkably be 6 Squacco Herons and a Cattle Egret, bearing in mind I had 6 Squacco’s on the 26th further up the coast, it’s entirely possible that it was the same birds.

As I entered the reserve, lots of waders everywhere dominated by Black Winged Stilt but so much more to see.

Curlew Sandpiper, Sanderling, Little, Kentish and Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Little Stint, Redshank, Greenshank, Avocet, Common Sandpiper, Turnstone and Whimbrel supporting.

Other goodies soon appeared in the shape of a pair of Woodchat Shrike, Marbled Teal, White Headed Duck, Red Rumped Swallow, Greater Flamingo and Crested Lark.

On the Gull front, ever present Yellow Legged Gulls, were joined by Slender Billed, Audouins and Mediterranean Gull, a large flock of Sandwich Terns also contained a Common Tern.

Over 3+ hours I thoroughly enjoyed it, missed out on others I have seen here in the past but a thoroughly enjoyable morning, this place and Spain never disappoints.

Spain

 

Christine and myself have just arrived back from 6 days in Spain staying near La Cala at my Sister’s and Brother in Laws place just down the coast from Malaga, a trip that started in 2020 but got cancelled/rolled on 4 times mainly due to Covid cancellations and issues. The timing was spot on however, as we had a bit of a heatwave, the temperature all week hovering around 24 – 31 degrees!

I have to say it was worth it for the sunrises alone, 4 floors up, we had spectacular views overhead (Raptors) 😊 , the surrounding scenery and of course the Mediterranean. As you know I am an early bird, it comes from a lifetime of Steelfixing, early starts and Peregrine monitoring, the inbuilt time clock always sees me up usually up at 5 or earlier. It doesn’t get much better than sitting there with a cuppa, unwinding, and watching the sun come up.

As is the case, I slipped out at dawn on the 26th for a coastal jaunt along the board walk, starting at El Bombo beach and covering the rocks and sea, right up to and beyond the Oceano Beach Hotel, it was already quite warm, but it turned out to be a very productive walk.

Top billing of the birds seen, will undoubtably go to 6 Squacco Herons that dropped onto the rocks, no doubt having a rest and preen on their way to their breeding grounds. They were quite stunning and undoubtably offered the best views I have had of the species, watched these for a good while.

It turned out to be an exceptional Egret morning, as scanning the Sea in the hope of a Cory’s Shearwater, produced 3 distant Great White Egrets moving up towards Malaga and then 2 Little Egrets dropped in with the Squacco’s.

Rather bizarrely one of the Little Egrets had orange feet, instead of the standard yellow, but none the less very active feeding amongst the rocks.

Others seen were occasional distant Gannets, a large flock of Sanderling, 8 Whimbrel, 18 Turnstone, Common Kestrel and the commoner local birds like Serin, Monk Parakeet and Yellow Legged Gull. I have picked up Audouins Gull here in the past but later in the year.

A good couple of hours.