Monday 1st April at 2.14pm, this is the last capture on camera on the ledge that I have for Charlie…
I was walking from Hammersmith shortly before that and could see two Peregrines fighting over the skies around the Ark and Novotel. When I got to the hospital I could see 2 Peregrines on the hospital and 2 Peregrines up in the air. Unfortunately the sun shining right over the hospital prevented me to see much of what was happening and prevented me from taking any meaningful photos. It was enough for me to see that Tom was perched on the North Wing corner. There was a bird on the wall over the ledge but I couldn’t make out who it was, that bird was being dive bombed by one of the birds in the air. Then, there was a bird on the ledge, it went onto the ledge, the recording told me later that it was Charlie. She was there screaming for a couple of minutes then she took off and went around the North Wing and that’s the last I have seen of her.
Tom turned up on the ledge late afternoon with food, no one turned up, I started to wonder if something was wrong, but, occasionally, Charlie hasn’t heard Tom so he had to go and find her, it could be that.
Time to go to bed and Charlie had not turned up to roost. I checked the cctv as soon as I got up the next morning, no Charlie roosting on the ledge. I checked the hospital and there were 2 birds perched on corners. One is Tom, the other has its back turned so I couldn’t tell but something was telling me it wasn’t quite right. So, I went out with my camera. By then the birds had moved towards the front of the hospital. Again, one was Tom. The other was definitely not Charlie, the pattern on the head wasn’t right… Then they flew off and I managed a shot of the legs of the bird, no green ring but a metal ring on the right leg… A new girl…
She has blood on her right leg, I suspect from the fight with Charlie.
Since yesterday morning, she has been spending a fair amount of time on the ledge. Tom has brought her food which she has accepted. Tom has tried to entice her inside the nest box for a courtship display, she is happy to join in but from outside. I have seen them fly together and this morning they chased an intruder together. That intruder could have been Charlie, unfortunately the action was a bit too far for me to make out individual birds.
What next, only time will tell…
New Girl likes Parakeet 😉
