The young birds may well be about to leave indeed the young tiercel may already be ”peregrinating”. Maybe there is still an abundance of prey in the territory and so the parents don”t feel the need to keep the territory for themselves.
The autumn is now well and truly with us so the Diary may take a rest. Thank you for reading it. Let’’s hope that the two youngsters survive the winter.
The young peregrines should be on their way to new areas shortly the birds aren”t seen a lot now. We have watched eleven young fledge over the past four years so must hope that at least half of them managed to survive their first winter. Let’’s just wish them well and good hunting!!
Yesterday three of the peregrines were perching around the quarry face trying to keep cool as the weather has been quite warm recently. The fourth was probably in the trees. Very little activity on the part of other birds - too hot for them?
This afternoon just one bird was at the quarry - and no prizes for guessing who forgot their binos!
This afternoon there was no sign of any of the birds no noises either so they must have been away in the territory. It looks like rain so perhaps a bit of hunting beforehand was happening?
18 Aug - lots of crying coming from the trees at the quarry side but no sign of the crying bird/s or the adults the leaves are a good camouflage.
19 Aug - a lone female youngster on a branch of the tree overlooking the quarry. She wasn”t crying mid-afternoon so presumably she wasn”t hungry.
This afternoon the only activity in the quarry area was the arrival of the tiercel who came and sat on his favourite ledge above the webcam. No sign of the adolescents or the falcon - maybe off hunting as the weather was bright but not too hot [quite warm though!]
Sorry my ”EACH” got a bit mixed on my earlier entry. The young birds are often in the trees to the left of the quarry when not off hunting or importuning their parents for food from the trees around Wrigley’’s factory. The female adolescent certainly isn”t catching much if any food for herself at present maybe the young male is getting the idea?? we haven”t seen him catch anything yet but live in hopes!
Well sorry about the delay the diary page has been out of commission for technical reasons
Since July 17th the young birds have been getting more proficient in catching prey from their parents. They are seeming to be flying and perching away from the quarry area but have been stooping on buzzards in the valley. We had a short visit by a Leopard Moth [white with black specks] which alighted on one of the barriers and stayed for a day. The young peregrines are being allowed to cry for food quite a lot. On July 31st quite a hot day few birds were flying and in the afternoon the youngsters received a treat of an immature seagull EACH!
The viewing area has now been cleared so many thanks for your interest since March please come again next year to watch the fastest birds in the world.