Chichester Peregrine Blog

Saturday was beautiful, so a visit to Chichester was the order of the day.  First stop the Cathedral – and there, as soon as we looked to the spire, was Dad in his usual place on the north face.  As I Iooked away I saw another peregrine fly in to the east side and on further investigation found mum also on the top tracing basking in the autumn sunshine. So much for going on holiday!!! It seems these two much prefer to stay close to home and each other.

By the way, there are now peregrine fudge bars and tea towels for sale in the cathedral shop along with the mounted pictures of our pair, and more peregrine merchandise coming soon.

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!

Both parents are still enjoying each others company, despite the youngsters having left.  I frequently see them sitting together on the cathedral, often mirroring one another like bookends (that’s a sign of attraction isn’t it?  Bodes well for next year…).  Today they were sheltering out of the wind at either end of the ledge below the balcony, at the base of the two eastern turrets.  I wonder if they know where their kids went.  One to Rottingdean – where are the others?

Yesterday our girl number 34 was spotted by another eager photographer over at Rottingdean enjoying herself and giving the pigeons something to think about by flying low enough for her ring number to be identified.  She picked a beautiful day to go on her travels. (Thanks for keeping us informed – we are always interested to know where they go and what they are up to – mischief usually!!!)

Yesterday, I saw both adults sitting peacefully in the sunshine on the east side of the cathedral, dad in his usual spot high on the spire, and mum on the central blind window below him.

I haven’t seen any of the kids for several days now.  It’s possible that they’re still coming in to roost after dusk, but they may have all moved away.  If you’ve seen them recently, please add a comment and let us know where.  Thanks!

I only saw dad on his own for several days, then last week I saw one of the juvenile females with him a few days in a row, so on Saturday I decided to take my telescope down to look at her and see if I could make out the ring number.  What do you know, she wasn’t there.  Neither was dad!  Nobody was home.

Then, on Monday, I tried again and was treated to mum, dad and the juvenile female together.  When I arrived, dad was on his own, sitting in his favourite spot.  Then he flew down into the nest turret – daft boy, there’s nobody in there, surely!  A few moments later, mum and the juvenile arrived.  I think he just panicked at having got caught sleeping, so he went to the turret to show her he was doing his job and keeping an eye on the family.  I don’t think he managed to fool her!  She didn’t bother telling him off though, and the three of them settled quietly on various perches, napping, preening and enjoying the sunset.

I didn’t manage to see the ring number due to the juvenile’s choice of perch, but it was definitely a female.  I haven’t seen any of the others for a few weeks.  Perhaps they get home later, after dusk…

I passed by this afternoon and saw dad on his own.  30 seconds after I arrived, he walked around to the back of the pinnacle so I couldn’t see him!  What a cheek!  Oh well, I guess he likes a bit of privacy once in a while!

I was excited to see both parents and two of the youngsters in sunlight this evening.  Seems like a very long time since that happened.  Recently I’ve seen both adults, but rarely a juvenile, and they’ve tended to sit in the shade on those odd occasions when the sun has made an appearance.  Anyway, back to this evening…

I arrived to see dad in his favourite spot high on the spire, mum on the north blind window, and no. 35, our young boy, having a bit of a snooze on the east blind window.  I walked around the cathedral to see if any others were around, and while I was in the west, I heard loud squawking.  I rushed back around to the north and saw a female juvenile had landed next to mum, squawking at her – presumably asking to be fed.  When mum didn’t take any notice, the juvenile dropped its head and called more quietly, just like a child going from screaming demands, to quiet pleading.  It was quite extraordinary.  After only about 30 seconds of that, mum flew off – I assumed to get dinner.

Dad and no. 35 had both ignored the commotion, keeping a low profile.  The girl moved and perched behind the central pinnacle, against the spire – it was a fabulous position, showing her off clearly against the blue sky from the east, and with the sun on her back from the west.  A while later, a pigeon flew in to the cathedral – not normally noteworthy, but this one made me laugh, appearing to have a much lower IQ than an average pigeon.  I don’t know how it managed to fly at all, it had more gaps in its wings and tail than feathers to fly with!  I wonder why…  You’d think it’d move house!

Back to the peregrines…  I was still waiting for mum to reappear with food, and enjoying the lovely views of the juveniles.  Then another pigeon came in.  This one flew level with the female juvenile, dropping briefly onto the pinnacle alongside it, then changed its mind and left.  Our girl looked utterly perplexed, and very much awake!  Shortly afterwards pigeon number three perched level with dad, on the next panel around (the spire is octagonal).  The panel in question was the one immediately above our girl.  She looked as though she might have a go at it for a few minutes, staring upwards and standing as if about to take off – I told her to go for it, I dared her, I double-dared her…  Eventually, she resigned herself to having to wait for mum to bring in food and sat down to preen.

I waited, and waited, and mum didn’t reappear.  I decided to walk around again and see if she’d come in without me noticing – she had!  Where was she?  Sitting on the spire, next panel around from the pigeon, so the pigeon was sandwiched between dad to its east and mum to its west, and a hungry juvenile below.  Brave?…

Incidentally, mum didn’t have any food with her – perhaps the juvenile hadn’t been asking for dinner after all, maybe she was just saying to mum “hey mum, guess where I’ve been today?…”  Probably not.  Mum probably just wanted peace and quiet!

The last week has been very quiet at the cathedral.  A few times I’ve seen one or both parents during the day, but none of the juveniles until late evening.  Today, however, I was watching mum and dad while they were sitting together on the NE turret when one of the girls quietly flew in from the east and perched on dad’s favourite spot on the spire.  It was lovely to see her in daylight again!  The adults looked up, saw that she was safe, and returned to their siesta.

She sat for about an hour getting windswept and turning around occasionally.  Then, just as I was walking away from the cathedral, I heard loud squawking.  Of course, I rushed back to see what the fuss was about, wondering if the other kids had returned.  It was the same juvenile who flew around and landed on the balcony just below the parents.  My goodness she’s got a strong voice on her – she obviously takes after mum!  There didn’t seem to be any obvious reason for her outburst, but she continued for several minutes while her parents sat quietly ignoring her.  A pair of seagulls flew over and she looked up anxiously, perhaps hoping it was one of her siblings with food (can they catch their own dinner yet?  I doubt it…  More likely, they’d add their voice to hers, asking to be fed).  Then she moved to sit under the SE turret and eventually all was quiet again.  I resisted the temptation to hang around and see if anything else happened – it was only 6.30 so I could have been waiting a long time!

Yesterday afternoon I walked around the cathedral to find nothing again.  After 10 minutes both parents returned from the north, making a lot of noise, one of them carrying prey into the NW turret – their favoured ‘dining room’ this year.  The other adult sat on a pinnacle, keeping a very close eye on the horizon, and her mate.  I saw a few feathers float out of the turret, but not a lot – plucking was apparently very half-hearted.   Then the observing parent moved and sat on top of the turret, squawking loudly.  After a few minutes of this, dad emerged, carrying the pigeon which still had most of its feathers, and one wing.  He flew eastwards, flapping madly to try and gain height with his burden, eventually catching a thermal and circling in a gradual northerly direction.  I hoped to see the juveniles come in and take their dinner, but he disappeared out of sight, presumably to pass it to them over an open field where they were waiting for him.

Sunday afternoon, dad was sitting in his favourite spot high on the spire, and mum flew in, landing on the base of a pinnacle.  She looked worried and very alert.  She kept peeking around the pinnacle as though looking for something, or someone.  None of the juveniles were in sight.  Where were they?  She squawked loudly at dad, and he obediently (though rather unproductively) moved and sat on the edge of the nest turret, looking in at the empty nest.  Now she was happy that he was keeping a lookout for their youngsters, she was able to have a rest so went to sleep.  He sat, wide awake, looking out for the kids to return.  After about half an hour, he gave up and dropped to the narrow ledge below the balcony & turret, sheltering from the wind.  Mum moved up to his favourite spot to take over lookout duty, and nothing had changed when I left.  I heard later from a friend that the juveniles did all return safely, and somewhat noisily.