Territories

As you are aware from the previous post, density is increasing and with it comes smaller territories; most of this comes from a single or a pair settling on a core structure/building in between other pairings.

From then on, if in between 2 pairs it is about the 2 regular pairs and the newcomers observing invisible boundaries.
Recently I was told of a new pairing and I must be honest, I thought no way as I knew that a regular pair( just over a mile away east) used this structure also, as you could imagine I was a little skeptical. Further to this there is another pair west perhaps 1 ½ miles away, both of these regular pairs fledged young this year and all carry green rings as part of a new registered colour scheme.

So you can imagine my thoughts until I saw the juveniles myself, I only saw 2 of the confirmed 3 at distance, it was also confirmed that none of the juveniles are ringed which goes to prove they are indeed new birds.

Great to see ‘holes’ getting filled in but I must admit that going on territory sizes I didn't think there was room in between for another pair, nice to be proved wrong and also I owe an apology to the chap who told me.


Below is the juvenile male from the Flooded Out site, I am pretty sure it is him after studying photos of him from the CCTV and CD's kindly forwarded to me.

He is recovering with Sue at the South Essex Wildlife Hospital after flying into the glass of a very large Office Block in East London.

I went to see him on Wednesday and although lively and feeding himself well, both eyes have blood in them, inquiring today showed no difference in his condition, if it is a detached Retina it is not good.

The Hospital does a marvelous job for Wildlife so if you ever want to help feel free to make a donation, the web site is at the side of the blog.Your money will be well spent in helping wildlife, the Hospital is also under threat from a Crossing so they are looking for as many signatures as possible.

It also shows the danger of glass for any birds, not only peregrines but migratory ones, on reflective glass on a sunny day they all think there flying towards blue sky or cloud,as a standard all glass should be non reflective or tinted to offer no reflection.

Juvenile Tiercel

I managed to catch the chase below of a female juvenile peregrine going for a more or less full grown juvenile Shelduck.
It was likely just practice on the juveniles part as it would be very unlikely that she could carry this sized prey, not only that it would be extremely dangerous for her.
The Shelduck's natural instinct as you will see when threatened is to dive - clever behavior.