October 29th

Bit of a late posting, but better late than never.
I visited on Saturday morning, usual time at dawn; I am now staking the nestbox out at first light and throughout the morning to see if one of them enters it again. No luck but the real interesting time will come in Feb onwards; they will then start pair bonding and courtship behaviour before finally choosing a nest site.
The pair were both roosting on Victoria Tower on Saturday, the first bird heard though was a juvenile, with the light he came out, it was a male and he had prey with him which he took to the Abbey. I know the adults are not feeding him and are totally ignoring him but the bond is still there. A crow came to close to him on the Abbey and quick as a flash the adult Tiercel was on it and drove it off, Crows and Peregrines are like Cat and Dogs. Crows fear peregrines and will not challenge them in the open sky like they do with Kestrels and Sparrowhawks, on the deck is another matter, if they can mob them safely they will.

Juvenile Male

Juvenile

Juvenile on prey

Again as in the other week both adults just layed up, the adult Falcon is definitely taking a shine to the summit of Big Ben and now seems to use it regularly, the Tiercel still favours the Middle Tower.

Falcon just about visible on the summit of Big Ben

A better view

Laying up

I also had a chat to the chaps at Westminster Abbey, they went to the top the other day and could not believe the amount of prey on their ledges, they are also aware of the pair and sometimes point them out to the tourists.
I had quite a funny situation the other day, I was scoping the Tiercel on Victoria Tower and about 20 Chinese chaps and ladies came over, one who spoke passable English asked if he could have a look. As soon as he saw the male through the scope he went into overdrive and got very excited and started calling everyone over, in the end I had to show them all more or less and they absolutely loved it.One of them even told me the Chinese for peregrine or bird of prey, good to see that along with Parliament they are a tourist attraction!

Big Ben at dawn

Victoria Tower

I expect the juvenile to go soon, he is already way overdue, the fact that the adults are not driving him off shows how plentiful prey is in London, I often wonder where the brood will end up, I know one of 2010’s juveniles has got himself a mate.