Chichester Peregrine Blog

What an evening!  It was still very hot at 5.30 today, and the peregrines were obviously feeling it.  Two were visible (dad and our young boy), with their wings held out from their bodies, and their beaks open to keep as cool as possible while sitting in the sun.  I hadn’t been there long when dad took off and tried to catch a pigeon on the cathedral.  No luck.  Shortly afterwards, a female juvenile took off and had a go at another pigeon, missed, so went for a third, chasing it around for a while.  My bet was on either no. 36 or 37.  When she landed, I got a clear view of her ring – number 34!  Go girl!  She’s obviously overcome her timidity and let her instincts take over.  What a great show!

Dad later perched on the narrow ledge below the balcony, and a pigeon almost landed next to him, hesitated, thought better of it, then tried again, almost landing on top of him.  It seemed perplexed and landed instead on the green roof below, ruffling its feathers in confusion.  Dad sat for a moment, then swooped for the pigeon, narrowly missing it.  Apparently he objected to being attacked by a pigeon!

We saw dad and juveniles having a few more goes at pigeons during the evening, none successful.

Just as I was leaving (9pm), having packed up my telescope, four peregrines noisily flew in to the cathedral, circling round.  Dad landed with prey and proceeded to pluck it while the others continued flying.  Then one of the juveniles flew in carrying a scrap, presumably passed to her by mum.  Supper at last!

I arrived at lunchtime to see one of the juveniles happily circling around in the thermals, along with three herring gulls.  Presumably her siblings weren’t interested in playing so she found some new friends!

Over the next hour or so, the four juveniles all perched on the North and East blind windows, so for a while I had all of them in view together, and dad sitting on his favourite spot on the top tracing of the spire.

Later, one of the youngsters carried prey onto one of the towers above the cathedral entrance, and proceeded to pluck it.  For well over half an hour there was a flurry of feathers drifting off there.  She wouldn’t have caught the prey herself – it would’ve been passed to her in mid-air by one of the parents as part of the hunting training.  She was obviously enjoying her prize!

We did see a bit of group flying and tumbling over the cathedral and the town, but it was mostly a quiet day – too hot for a lot of activity!

I arrived yesterday to a lot of squawking from a juvenile sitting on the west balcony, then dad emerged and the juvenile dropped down.  I assumed there was food in there.  He perched where he could keep an eye on the juvenile in the balcony, and we could keep an eye on him.  After a while, the juvenile, our boy no. 35, emerged with an extremely full crop and sat in one of the castellations to have a nap.  Suddenly, one of his sisters popped up and sat next to him.  We all thought that was lovely, siblings sitting together for a rest after dinner.  No.  It wasn’t his friend, no. 37, it was in fact no. 36.  She started pecking at him, at his face, his beak and his feet.  Perhaps she was trying to clean him up after dinner, but it looked a bit brutal, almost as if she was trying to eat him (I don’t think she was…).  He didn’t look impressed.  He put up with it for a while then turned his back on her.

Meanwhile, dad had dropped into the balcony for a share of the dinner he’d presumably brought in earlier.  Our boy, having been woken up by his bullying sister, was obviously somewhat grumpy (can’t blame him!) and started squawking loudly at dad (he couldn’t be hungry, his crop was so full!).  He dropped down and the squawking continued for a moment, then dad rushed out and perched on the lower tracing on the spire – not an easy place to perch, and probably beyond the landing abilities of the juveniles.  He sat there in safety for a long time afterwards.

The whole family were out this afternoon, then my wait was rewarded by a lone juvenile returning to the cathedral and hovering level with the top of the spire for a few moments, circling round, then going back out to join the family.  A short while later, she (no. 36) came back again and perched on a west pinnacle.  She was soon joined by her sister (no. 34 – the last to fledge) who sat just below her.  They enjoyed the sunshine for a while, then no. 36 flew off, leaving no. 34 alone looking very worried and ultra-alert.  She sat looking around with a slightly panicked expression, and tried preening herself, but couldn’t relax.  Thankfully, a few minutes later as the 5.00 bells were ringing, the parents both returned, mum carrying food into the NE turret.  Both girls squawked excitedly and sat on top of the turret while clouds of feathers flew out from the dinner being prepared.

I don’t know where the other two juveniles were during that time, apart from a couple of minutes of hunting practice over the cathedral before they disappeared again.  One managed to grab hold of the other’s back in mid-air, but let go (whew!), then they spotted two pigeons flying together and headed after them.  They followed them around, ‘hunting’ side by side for almost a minute – at one point, both pigeons were above the peregrines.  I don’t think they’ve quite got the hang of it yet, lucky they’re still being fed by mum and dad!

Today was the last day of the RSPB project in Chichester.  The peregrines will be around and roosting on the cathedral for several weeks yet though, while they learn to hunt.  We’ll still be there with our telescopes and cameras regularly to keep an eye on them and update the blog and gallery.

It was a super day to finish.  At lunchtime one of the adults suddenly swooped northwards, and was seen chasing away a red kite.  There was at least one juvenile on view from the marquee and telescopes all day, posing beautifully for us.

Later in the afternoon, after packing up, we had a bit of a party to celebrate the end of a successful project (and for my birthday – thanks all for coming!).  Early evening, we had a bit of fast action and a lot of noise while the juveniles chased the adults around, trying to get them to bring in food.  They’re not feeding them so frequently now, getting them hungry enough to work for their food so they learn how to hunt.  This will be happening more and more over the next few days and weeks.

Something we’ve been asked about a lot today was a pair of peregrines in Hove that were on the news.  No, for those of you who are wondering, they’re not from Chichester.  One of them has got a green ring with white writing, and has been identified as being from Brighton.  The other hasn’t been ringed.  Chichester juveniles have all got black rings with white writing.

I arrived after lunch to hear that one of our poor juveniles had been teased by a pigeon.  She’d been sitting on a narrow ledge below the level of the balcony when the pigeon came and stood next to her.  It walked along the ledge away from her, then back towards her, repeating that a few times.  She was utterly perplexed and didn’t know what to do!

During the day, we had plenty of flying action, at one point seeing all four juveniles flying around together, tumbling and catching at each other in the air.  Later, we had three doing the same, while both parents circled lazily high above them, keeping a close eye on the action.

Late afternoon, there was a robbery at a jewellers in Chichester, and a police helicopter was circling and hovering over the town for a long time.  We could see one of the juveniles sitting on a turret, but she didn’t look overly concerned by the loud noise (well, they are used to the cathedral bells every day, so I guess they’re not easily spooked by loud noises!).  After about 20 minutes, she took off with one of her siblings to show the chopper how it’s done – boy did they go fast, zooming off to the east!

Wow, our kids are getting very strong now.  They were flying around for long periods of time today, instead of just the short bursts of activity previously.  They kept chasing each other and grappling in mid-air, making a lot of noise!  A couple of times I saw two (our boy with one of his sisters, presumably his best friend, number 37) – they were flying very fast and heading out of sight, first eastwards over the town, then later southwards.  Soon after heading south, Dad left his perch and had to chase them to make sure they didn’t get into trouble.  He managed to bring them back and got caught up in their aerial antics before they all stopped for a rest.  Breathtaking action!

There are still long periods of quiet while the juveniles have a rest.  When they do get up and move around though, boy are they entertaining!

A couple of times today we saw them flying around, grappling with each other.  I saw dad zoom off southwards with two juveniles trying to catch him.  Their flying is getting much stronger and more confident – catching dad is perhaps a little ambitious though!  Landing is still proving a bit of a problem at times, taking a few attempts.  They’ll soon get the hang of it.  They’re tending to land in places that the adults never go, such as the top of the bell tower.  We saw a couple of them pottering about up there, picking around at whatever they could find, exploring their surroundings.  Every now and then we’d see a startled pigeon or a small flock rush off for shelter, having unexpectedly encountered a juvenile peregrine.

At this stage our youngsters seem to have a short attention span, having a brief fascination with whatever’s close by, then moving on to the next thing.  Rather like small children, figuring out how their world works.

Towards the end of a very quiet day, we finally had a bit of activity with the juveniles flying around with both adults.  There were two or three in the air at a time, while the others were resting.  Two of them were grappling in mid-air, trying to catch each other.  It’s hunting training getting underway.

It was a bit damp this afternoon.  Then there was torrential rain, turning the gutter pipe on the cathedral into a fountain.  Shortly afterwards, it turned into a sharp hail storm.  Now, we all sensibly sheltered in the marquee and cloisters.  You’d imagine that the peregrines would have all found shelter in the nest box or other locations in their home.  No.  Dad was sitting in the castellations on a turret so didn’t get the full brunt of the weather.  He did look rather cross though!  Meanwhile, one of the girls, number 36, sat on top of the turret closest to the wind and driving rain/hail, facing into it (well, at least she got that right, so it wasn’t blowing under her feathers!).  She looked a little worried, and tried holding her wings out and shaking them, as if trying to dry them.  Easier to do if it’s not actually raining!  Poor girl looked as though she’d been swimming by the end of it, and took a long time to dry off, preening in the intermittent sunshine.