Honestly, you go off for a fortnight’s holiday, in the belief that your Peregrines have three chicks and then you come back to four! Four?! How on earth did that happen? Well, many theories are circulating and I’m not going to go into them all. What we believe is the most likely cause, is that one of the eggs was later than the others and that the adult Peregrines have seen it through to fledging. One of the young males has been spending a lot of time separate from the rest and he's noticeably smaller, which would reinforce this view. Suffice to say, like proud parents, we’re delighted. It’s been five years since there have been four young Peregrines at Symonds Yat and it was another five years before that. Naturally, my colleague Tia and I like to think it’s because of our presence this year.
Despite sibling differences, all four were out yesterday, wheeling and tumbling with each other. I guess that once you discover that you’re the fastest animal on the planet, it’s hard not to go out tearing the air up. I should just point out here, that it’s probably highly unlikely that Peregrines know they’re the fastest animal on the planet. Unless someone’s told them. A jealous Buzzard perhaps.
I digress. All the young are now flying regularly and are very vocal. Yesterday we observed one bringing back pigeon prey, another stooping at a stationery pigeon on a branch (very dangerous) and a pair of them attacking a female Goshawk in mid-air (unbelievably foolish). Meanwhile, the adults are noticeably absent, until they come back with food. Great excitement all round ensues and then we see neither hide nor hair for about an hour afterwards, as digestion and dozing takes place.
One of the most curious bits of Peregrine behaviour was observed recently with our female having a bath. An observer on the viewpoint saw her fly down to the shingle on the curve of the riverbank and sit there for five minutes watching the water. All lenses were trained on her, as she took a few tentative steps towards the water, before then just wading in. Much to our collective astonishment, she then proceeded to duck and splash water over her back, preening herself as she went. A further five minutes of this went on, until she came back on to dry land to ruffle her feathers in the sunshine, whilst continuing to preen herself. This was a sight never seen before by many of our seasoned visitors and certainly one that few of us will forget in a hurry.
Hi Ed
Maybe you should go for another holiday..............you might come back to five juveniles!
Interesting observation of the female bathing - I have seen this myself from time to time but Frank Williams actually saw a recently fledged juvenile swimming in the Wye in June 1990 [See In pursuit of the Peregrine by Dick Treleaven page 189]. This was a juv tiercel which pitched onto a stone pier, part of a salmon groyne, in the middle of the Wye. He seemed to try to walk on water but then got carried some way downstream only to do a 'butterfly' stroke and 'row' to the safety of the river bank.
Good to see you back
Steve Watson