Parliament

Sunday February 24th


I visited on Sunday morning, blimey it was cold, in truth I was not expecting them to be here, by now I thought they would have ‘gone over’.
Pleasantly surprised to see the Tiercel come out of roost at 6.45am from Victoria Tower, and even better he began to hunt, of the Falcon there was no sign, I presumed she was at the nest site.
He went up to hunt and flew 4 failed sorties, returning from the 4th he flew to the western side of Victoria Tower and retrieved stashed prey, an early morning snack so to speak.

Halfway through feeding he stopped and became very alert looking over towards the Abbey, I could not see anything but as I turned back to where he was, he was already heading over there. I had an idea what had caught his attention and this proved correct when I walked round there.
The Falcon had just bought in a feral pigeon and had just begun to feed, the Tiercel resumed a position and was waiting patiently for her to finish, at times not very patiently calling as his hunger overrode her dominance.

Waiting patiently

I recently had a similar scenario of another pair, she was feeding and the Tiercel tried to take it out from under her, lots of aggression, wing flapping and physically trying to push each other off the prey, as usual the larger baulk and dominance of the Falcon was too much for the Tiercel.

Different pair, Falcon bowled over as Tiercel tries taking prey from her

Recovered and hanging on

With the Falcon being present also it means that they are still here at Parliament, it is unlikely that they will stay, so far they have shown no interest in the nestbox provided by the University for them which is a pity. At the moment I am guessing the main reason that they are still present is due to the very cold weather, breeding instincts proper will not kick in until warmer weather arrives, and it appears the same for other pairs in London. 

Tame little chap

Getting back to the pair, I continued to watch them until she had finished feeding; she as always has the Lions share of the prey, rightly so as she has to be in good condition to produce eggs, when she had finished and moved away the Tiercel was in there quick as a flash. He grabbed it before she could change her mind and flew back to Victoria Tower; I found him a short while later feeding. 

Taking it while he can

Both birds then just layed up after feeding to digest food, with the weather pattern set for cold the rest of the week, they could well be here next weekend, I will have another look.