October 27th
On Sunday despite the very strong wind conditions I visited a site in London to check up on a pair; early morning rain soon gave way to some welcome sunshine. If you have watched peregrines before you will know they revel in these conditions, flying becomes effortless and at times they hold position against the wind with hardly a wing beat recalling Common Buzzard.
This particular pair fledged 2 juveniles this year, both of them, a male and female have been gone for well over a month, on Sunday the male tried to return and beg for food. Of course this could be another male juvenile from another site, hard to tell, but going on the adults reactions, there was a certain level of acceptance, I think it was there offspring. If it wasn’t I am pretty sure that they would have driven him off as soon as he came into their territory.
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| The juvenile |
All was ok until the juvenile tried to muscle in on the Tiercel, he had just taken a feral pigeon, the Falcon seeing this became very aggressive, I suspect as the Tiercel usually hands prey to her in most circumstances, she saw her meal being threatened. Additionally from her reaction afterwards, he was obviously not welcome anymore, in short time to go.
She then went after him and pursued him high and low, relentlessly chasing him and both were lost to view, she returned shortly later and I thought that was it. Remarkably, he is obviously a stubborn juvenile, he came back, the process was again repeated with even more gusto by the Falcon. He was seen off and despite me looking for him for the next hour he never returned, he had undoubtedly got the message, hopefully he will get through his 1st winter.
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| The juvenile trying to shake his mother, he couldn't |
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