Yesterday afternoon as we arrived to watch in the cathedral grounds we heard the unmistakable sounds of a peregrine alarm call. Mum had spotted an intruder from her vantage point on the nest turret. Dad was up in an instant and there followed several close encounters with an intruder. We suspect it was the female (it was bigger than Dad) from last year’s brood as it was very reluctant to go. Dad finally chased her off to the south east and returned to the nest turret – obviously mum didn’t feel he had done a good enough job and took off also in a south easterly direction to make sure. They were soon both back on the spire and Dad tried a bit of mating but she wasn’t interested and shooed him off. He disappeared, to return very quickly with what looked suspiciously like a woodcock. Mum quickly took charge of this even though she still had a full crop leaving Dad looking hungry!! Hopefully he got some dinner after we had left!
