Parliament

August 17th

Back at last!
From past posts you will know that the pair have stayed faithful to their nest site despite failing relatively early, I for one was surprised that they didn’t return earlier to Parliament. My thinking at the time was that there has been a change of Falcon due to her ignoring the nest tray, and subsequently failing due to poor site selection.

5 Egyptian Geese going by, very likely heading for St. James Park

 Why change position after 3 successful breeding seasons in the nest tray and the same spot?
Very odd, disturbance is not an issue as far as I know so you can understand the thinking of – a new bird, new idea’s.

Well after getting a good look at her on Saturday, it looks as if we have the same female; she is still carrying the same ring on her right leg so out goes that theory. Unless there’s another female around with a single ring on her right leg it looks as if we have the same bird.
As soon as I arrived on Saturday I walked straight round past Big Ben to get a better look, no birds visible, the time was 6.00am,looking east showed the promise of a good morning.

A good morning

Victoria Tower

Retracing my steps back round to Victoria Tower and I could immediately hear a peregrine calling, the agitated stress call of a Tiercel waiting on prey and so it proved, the Falcon was feeding.
I have been back to Parliament a number of times over the last few months so it was good to see them back at last, as I have said before photography is not ideal at their nest site so more than happy to be able to try and get a few shots of them at Parliament.

The Falcon on prey

Tiercel waiting

Heavily cropped shot of Falcon - ring on right leg just about visible

Falcon - fed and resting up

I watched them for a good few hours throughout the early morning, initially the Falcon fed, then the prey was relinquished to the Tiercel, both then laid up to rest. Realising that was it for the morning I went in search of the Hybrids…..