I arrived at the cathedral today to find dad flying around above the green. It’s the first time I’ve seen one flying for several weeks – they sit still for hours! After he landed, I walked around to see if I could spot mum. She was on the pinnacle overlooking the nest turret. She was looking in, and appeared to be worried – occasionally looking up at dad high above her on the spire and squawking, then looking back into the turret again. At one point, she seemed to stare at me – I shrugged and said “I dunno, I’ve no idea what’s wrong!”. It brought back memories from earlier in the year when she was upset that the turret was still full of old shingle and needed clearing out. I popped into the cathedral to ask the vergers if they knew whether anyone had been up and done anything to the nest – apparently not, they knew nothing.
I re-emerged 15 minutes later and saw that mum had gone – no sign of her anywhere. Dad left, heading south a few minutes later. I hung around for a while, but didn’t see either return.
Perhaps mum was just saying goodbye, telling dad to keep an eye on her nest while she’s away for the winter months (only at the local harbour!). I’ll look out for her in the next couple of weeks and see if she comes back…
Add a comment if you see her. Thanks!