Parliament September 10th and 17th

Sept 10th

Dawn found me trying to locate any birds on Victoria Tower; mornings are starting to drag out now with light not coming until 6.15am, autumn is here.

Big Ben (click on photos to enlarge)

London Eye

Despite a good search of all their usual favourite roost spots, the only one that gave itself up was the adult Tiercel; he was seen briefly before heading north. Of the Falcon and juvenile female there was no sign. It was not until 6.40am before I saw the juvenile female; she came in from the east across the river and landed on the topmost towers of Victoria Palace. At first I thought she was looking for the Tiercel to return with prey as she scanned the skyline, this thought was quickly cast aside as she proceeded to hunt. Over the course of the next hour and a half she made 7 sorties, unfortunately all failures as she returned every time preyless.

Juvenile hunting from Victoria Tower

Tiercel on the Abbey

Falcon laying up on Middle Tower

Juvenile about to go on another hunt

At 7.40am the adult Falcon came in from the west and landed on the middle Tower, scoping her revealed a full crop.
From these actions it appears the adults have stopped feeding her, this was reinforced when the Tiercel came in around 7.55am, her usual action would be to intercept him, instead she carried on hunting and the Tiercel fed on Westminster Abbey.
Decided to call it a day around 8.30am, I have now got into the habit of checking Victoria Tower Gardens for migrants, especially at this time of year, no rarities but a Chiffchaff was seen and also a pair of Egyptian Geese feeding on the river.

Egyptian Goose

A nice end to the morning, it seems constant westerly’s/south westerly’s at the moment with occasional sunshine, I managed to get a few photos, the pick of them being the juvenile flying past the flag on Victoria Palace.


September 17th

6.30am-with a strong south westerly it was not hard to locate the adults, both were sheltering in roost positions on the northern face of Victoria Palace, of the juvenile there was no sign. By 7.45am both adults had not moved, looking at both of them showed their crops to be slightly bulging but not overly. It was possible that a night time excursion or a dusk meal may have taken place, night time hunting as we now know is becoming a regular occurrence for some pairs.

Juvenile male, note size of crop

Tiercel

Tiercel

A nice surprise was seeing a juvenile coming in and landing on the Tower with the adults, I suspected as it came in that it was one of the males, as I got on it the size was quite apparent, it was indeed a male. A bulging crop showed it had killed and fed.

Bold as brass

Good nick for a ' Townie'

Checking for Dogs

I also came across what was probably one of the tamest Foxes I have seen, walking around bold as brass on the green opposite Parliament in broad daylight, no mange and a good brush, it was healthy, it was obviously used to people. As you can judge by the photos, it just walked straight up to me.
Time was marching on and nest box inspection called so I headed inside.