First ones out successful

Out at the crack of dawn in what is becoming catch up time over the weekend, my biggest worry at this time of year is that 2 or 3 sites will all fledge at the same time, you simply can’t be in 2 places at once. Grounding will always be an issue.
I checked on one pairing and glad to say that the 2 juveniles had not only fledged safely but both were flying around very strongly, these have been on the wing I would say since the early part of the week, May 27th on wards. As mentioned in earlier posts, this is the very early pair, which along with a couple of other pairs seem to be rewriting the manual in regard to peregrine laying and fledging times.

Female Peregrine flying the flag

Tiercel's, they love a Crane

Falcon

I watched these for a good hour, managed to get a few photos, nothing to write home about but ok, getting a new lens soon so hopefully they will improve. I have a Sigma 120 to 400mm, it’s a good lens when the suns out but at dawn in low light and cloud, trying to track and get a lock on a fast moving peregrine is a big challenge, sometimes a turn the air blue challenge when you know you have missed a good shot. I once missed a female peregrine hitting and grabbing a Crow near her nest site, it was close and one of those shots that you wait years for. I know what I want, an F4 400mm prime lens but like a lot of things it comes at a price, am now exploring the second-hand market.

One of the juveniles, flying strongly already

Adult Falcon

Previous to this site I was at Parliament, having failed at their nest site I expected them to be back to their usual haunts, they were not,hopefully I have likely just missed them so will try again this weekend.

I also visited the scaffold nest box site (see Monday 15th April) and at first I could not see nothing in the box, I can’t see right into it, it’s about 14 floors up but I knew she had hatched young after seeing 3 little white dots a little while back being fed by an adult.Both adults were present but were at least 60 metres from the nest site on another building, both could no doubt respond to the threat of Crows but they always, especially the Falcon sit closer.
It’s very easy to jump the gun seeing and knowing the threats that they face but I was a very relieved man when 2 fair sized chicks suddenly showed themselves about 45 minutes later. No doubt they were pancaking, of the 3rd possibly still laying down or may have succumbed; as they progress I will know.

With Nathalie’s Charring X juveniles well under way with fledging, all 3 have now made the leap of faith, hopefully all will be ok. This weekend may also see another pairing taking the leap, hopefully the weather will be kind with some decent wind to aid them.