It is against the law to photograph and/or intentionally disturb a Schedule 1 bird at the nest site without a "Schedule1 license" issued by Natural England. Penalties can include a term of imprisonment or a £5000 fine. The license is issued to a person who can meet strict criteria. Licenses are only issued to represent 1% of the breeding population of the species. I am in possession of a Schedule 1. license to photograph Peregrine Falcon at this nest site.
In addition, this blog entry is only posted after consultation with officers of the Devon Bird Watching and Preservation Society and great care has been taken to preserve the safety of the birds at this nest site.
I have been keeping a diary for the last few weeks and here it is starting from June 9th 2013.
This is the nest of a breeding pair of Peregrine Falcons that have bred at this site for the last few years. When I visited today,for the first time this breeding season, even though I knew roughly where the nest was, it took me quite a while to locate it. It was exciting to see these fully grown, almost ready to fledge youngsters. In the field I could only see 3 but when I looked at the images back at home I could clearly see 4 healthy babies. The birds are breeding well away from any human interference. It is very difficult to climb up to an area opposite the nest ledge where I could get a clear view of the nest from the hide that I built and remains from last year. There is thick cover which enabled me to approach without disturbance. Peregrine falcons are extremely sensitive to the presence of humans and without the thick cover it would be impossible to approach the nest, even from 50 metres, without the adult birds being aware. I stayed at the nest site for a couple of hours, in that time I watched the young birds snoozing, preening and sleeping off the last meal. I was hidden beautifully in a hide which I can carefully approach from under he cover of woodland. From this vantage point I have a clear view of the nest and also the sky above. From time to time both parents would fly around calling occasionally. I was able to get this photo as one of the birds flew over me.
On the 10th when I visited there was still 4 youngsters on the nest ledge and I watched the comings and goings of the parents who were delivering prey with much excitement from the youngsters as they approached the nest giving me the chance to get myself ready to watch the delivery. Prey has been mostly small song birds as well as the odd Magpie and young Carrion Crow.
Photography is not easy. I am positioned more than 50 metres from the nest and have been using a 500mm 4.5 Sigma prime lens with a Kenko 2x convertor attached. Some degrading of the images is caused by the use of the convertor. Here, one of the nestlings carries a prey item to eat it without competition from it's siblings. The prey has been plucked away from the nest by the parent before delivering, making it impossible to identify but it is Blackbird or Thrush sized. The parents, instead of feeding the chicks are now just dropping prey on to the nest ledge. A "free-for-all" then" ensues as either the strongest or hungriest grabs the prey. I watched one young bird "cover" it's prey by crouching and extending the wings over it's meal. This is well known adult behaviour.
The young peregrines are quite delicate feeders. In this photograph even though one bird is possession of prey the other bird is not aggressively trying to take it, allowing the other to feed quietly. As I subsequently watched these birds for countless hours, this has been quite an interesting example of behaviour. It could be that with a never ending supply of food, the birds do not need to compete too much.
Here is a clear view of the four siblings. Peregrines lay up to four eggs so it is normal for there to be four chicks. Incubation starts when the last egg is laid so that all the chicks hatch on the same day. There is difference in size and development though, as you can see, some still have down protruding, this is probably due to females being larger than males.
At t the Peregrine nest on the morning of the 10th it wasn't long before one of the parents delivered prey to the four young birds. There was quite a degree of commotion with the adults screaming loudly. Suddenly one of the adults delivered a prey item to the youngsters, it looked like a Common Starling but it was hard to be certain. It seemed that one of the youngsters was dominant and it grabbed the prey from the parent and then protected it before taking pieces of flesh off it quite carefully. The other youngsters seemed content to let their sibling feed without interference. The parents, in stead of feeding their nestlings are now just delivering prey and letting them feed themselves. I would estimate that they are due to leave the nest at any time, possibly tomorrow. But as the days went by, one bird left the nest ledge and would return to join the others from time to time.
I cant be sure where on the ledge the eggs were actually laid but at the moment, just prior to fledging the nest the birds are quite mobile and move around an area of the ledge which is about 6 feet wide. This grass knoll seems to be a favourite spot. After a few days 3 had fledged leaving just one youngster on it's own. This bird appeared to be several days behind the others in development giving me the impression that it had hatched a day or so later than the others which is contrary to information that I have previously read.
It's hard to get really good photos from the distance that I am from the nest ledge. I am having to crop my images considerably so its remarkable that I have a few that are almost acceptable. It's interesting to see the different pattern on the head in this juvenile compared to an adult.
......and the young bird then gets on with it's meal, a starling left by the male who, instead of feeding the chicks like he did when they were young, now delivers plucked prey for the youngsters to feed themselves. It must be precarious existence for the other residents of the wood as it seems that nothing is off the menu. The chicks spend between 35 and 42 days in the nest and are responsible for eating at least two prey items a day for the first 25 days or so, increasing to probably 4 a day from 25 to 42 days. This represents a flock of around 150 birds of various species. I had noted last year that Magpies (Pica pica) seemed to be taken by this pair.
They preen constantly running the tail feathers through the beak. This is obviously instinctive behaviour. Several times I have seen birds standing on one leg as they scratch but then being unable to maintain their balance and almost falling over even though it's very obvious that they are very strong, they have yet to develop a good sense of balance.
Youngsters can be told from the adults by the lack of a yellow eye ring and cere (above the beak) and also they have a buff/cream band at the end of the tail.
The adults seem in tune to every sight and sound as they stand guard over the youngsters. In the photo below a dog has barked nearby which caused quite a reaction from this adult, the female. It remained on this perch for around 15 minutes but always remained alert, looking and listening intently.
Then she flies away from the nest after feeding it to the youngsters unlike the male who seems to just drop the prey for them to deal with. The female is a noticeably bigger bird than male. This is the first real look I have had of her and I was surprised at the difference in size between the two adults. It was also interesting to see how dark she is. She has a relatively small head. Here she has left the nest ledge with a Blackbird prey and seems to be stashing it in a crevice in the rocks (below) before flying off again. (see above).
The birds have some favourite perches around the nest area and one is this perch (below) which I have a clear view of from a hide just above. The youngsters used this very same branch last year so there must be something very inviting to the young birds (and adults) as well. Note the absence of yellow around the beak and eye which is blue grey in the youngsters.
The young bird was calling and begging for food almost constantly. It was interesting to see that even though it can fly strongly and in a controlled way, even being able to land on this relatively slender perch, it found it difficult to maintain it's balance as it moved around on the perch.
On the 14th June I visited twice. There were still two youngsters still to fledge and then the 2 became 3 when one returned to the ledge. When I returned in the evening and watched the 2 youngsters on the ledge on a dead tree to the left of the ledge the female was keeping guard, noisily calling now and again. In the same tree one of the youngsters sat on a perch beneath her and then the male arrived and began to pluck a recently caught prey item. This took about ten minutes before he flew over to the ledge and delivered it to the two chicks.
Behaviour by now had started to change with the young birds spending most of their time in a large bare Oak adjacent to the next ledge and the parents away, some 100 metres in a wood opposite where I can hear them from time to time. A lot of the behaviour of the young birds is very instinctive like this covering of prey which all birds of prey do. Having now taken possession of the prey item from the female, the young bird makes a statement that it his hers before starting to feed on it.
The female caught this prey very close to the perch that she is on. I watched her catch sight of the prey and then quietly dive down through the leaves of the oak towards her quarry . Seconds later she was back on a perch plucking the victim. All the while, one of the youngsters was waiting on a higher branch and as she plucked it, it was calling loudly, begging to be fed. It took several minutes before the female flew up and handed over the prey, a small song bird.
Now the youngsters have left the relative safety of the ledge and they are spending their day in the bare Oak. Compare this youngster to the adults, it is more brownish with different facial markings and lacking the white throat and breast and has a buff/cream band to the end of the tail which is totally absent in an adult.
This is the female, she is about to slip quietly off the back of this branch to predate a small songbird. I have been surprised to discover that the majority of prey is small rather than pigeons and ducks etc. This is probably due to the abundance of small birds in the woodland next to the nest site whereas Peregrines that nest on coastal cliffs would predate larger birds such as waders and seabirds.
Adult females are significantly larger than males with more body bulk. Markings on the head are not as distinct as the male and the throat and upper breast is not pure white like the male. However they are still difficult to tell apart unless you see them close together. If you compare the photos of the male with this you can see that comparatively, she has a slight brownish appearance whereas the male is slate blue. The male spent a lot of the time interacting with the female, when he heard her calling he would quietly answer her. However when she flew towards him he seemed to give up his perch to her giving me the distinct impression that she was dominant over him. Given that she is almost a third bigger than him, this is understandable. The adult male as well as being smaller has a more solid black head, a cleaner white throat and is more sleek and elegant than the female.
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