After all the training, I finally started my official post at the Peregrine Watch this week. With a sunny weekend we had a great turnover at the watch site and got to show the birds to a lot of wonderful people.

Despite their elusiveness on Saturday, the peregrines treated us with very exciting behaviours like courtship, food offers and nest scraping. This left us hopeful that the birds would start breeding soon. Our hopes were confirmed on Monday when they were seen mating! Fingers crossed we will have some fertile eggs soon.

We also had the opportunity to go to the Scottish Wildlife Trust headquarters on Monday where we got to know the team and the Trust’s work a bit better. Also got some first-hand reports of what is going on the other reserves like Montrose Bay, Loch of the Lowes, Handa Island or Jupiter as all the other seasonal staff was there as well. It was really interesting meeting everyone and know how things run in the other reserves

Finally, yesterday I got to meet my mentor – Dr. Rob Bray. As an intern, the SWT has assigned me a mentor to give me support and advice on my placement, as well as some guidance for my career and future plans. We had a lovely morning at the peregrines and a very helpful chat on the way back to the visitor centre.

If you have any questions about being an intern the SWT or if there is anything you would like to know about peregrines leave a comment or a message on Facebook and I’ll cover it on my next post 🙂

Cat Fonseca – Scottish Wildlife Trust, Peregrine Ranger Intern
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