After last week’s sunny weather I was hoping to come back to some eggs this Friday and an incubating falcon. Unfortunately our girl seems to be a bit late and hasn’t laid any eggs yet. The waiting continues!

The peregrines seem to have had a very chilled weekend spending a lot of time perching and preening. I was very happy on Friday when the tiercel brought the falcon a starling that she “posed” with before plucking. And also when he did the same later on with another starling he brought for himself. As a bird newbie one of the biggest challenges is to identify featherless prey items, so I always get excited when we can have a good look at them.

On Saturday there was some interesting activity when an intruder peregrine flew over the watch site. The only reaction seemed to be clucking from the tiercel but none of them were bothered enough to chase the intruder off. They showed a similar reaction last week when, on two different occasions, a buzzard flew close to the watch site and the peregrines kept a silent eye on the trespasser.

In the past our pair has actively chased out peregrines, buzzards and ospreys. However, most of these incidents happened when there were eggs in the eyrie (nest), which might explain the readiness to actively respond to intruders.

Although in these cases the territorial behaviour was shown to protect the eggs, it is demonstrated as well to decrease competition for food and nesting areas. That is why we only have one breeding pair at the Falls of Clyde and why the juveniles need to leave the area once they are strong flyers and hunters.

See you soon,

Cat Fonseca – Scottish Wildlife Trust, Peregrine Ranger Intern
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