The peregrine watch site has now been closed since Sunday meaning the end to another season of monitoring our resident pair, but the story did not finish there! The peregrines will stay in the gorge for the rest of the year as they do not migrate and there was still the matter of this year’s egg to be dealt with.

George, who has ringed the peregrine chicks in previous years, came to the reserve on Tuesday evening to climb down to the ledge and hopefully retrieve the egg from this year’s eyrie. As well as this we had a visit from the BBC who recorded a radio interview with Adam, Laura and George about the peregrine watch this year, our breeding pair and the process of recovering the egg.

As George disappeared over the edge of the cliff we were left waiting, hoping that the recent spell of sunny weather had not lead to the gases within the egg expanding, causing the egg to explode as it did last year. Fortunately George was soon back up and with the egg placed carefully in a padded box. It was still in one piece and can now be sent away for analysis in Edinburgh. The egg was the right reddish brown colour and was not malformed, though there is still a possibility it is unfertilised. We have done everything in our power to protect and watch over the nesting pair so it will be interesting to get the results back and hopefully work out why there were no chicks this year.

The interview will feature on ‘Out of Doors’ which will air this Saturday at 6am on BBC Radio Scotland, and will be available to listen to on BBC iplayer. Please tune in to hear the exciting conclusion to this year’s watch and hopefully we will have some news back on the analysis of the egg!

Bye for now!

Alex Kekewich – Falls of Clyde Seasonal Ranger