Tom and Charlie have managed to do 2 ‘proper’ courtship displays inside the nest box since the last post. The season is properly started!
This was on Friday 4th January
And this was yesterday.
No visit to the nest ledge today but I saw Charlie perched on the usual perch and, this evening, she was on one of her roosting flues, as most days.
Tom preening on the ledge last night while he kept an eye out on the egg. A good thorough job, including talons.
Tom brings food to Azina in the box this morning. I love how their departures are perfectly synchronised!
You may wonder why I am sharing these photos now…
2 days ago I finished reading New Girl’s ring, that involved a lot of patience and luck but little by little I managed to piece it all together. I immediately submitted the number to Euring (https://euring.org/) and got an email back from the BTO this evening.
It turns out that I watched (and probably a few of you too) her grow up on a RSPB webcam and then I saw her take some of her first flights! She is no spring chicken, she was born in 2010 in Vauxhall, London, from the Parliament pair. What did she do in those nearly 9 years? We’ll never know as it doesn’t look like her ring was reported in those years.
So there you go, a London bird 
🙂
And for those of you following the Nottingham Peregrines, it means she’s Archie’s big sister!
So, she is one of the 4 young on the first shot, at the nest site, could be one of the 2 on the second, and is in one of the circles on the 3rd shot, at Parliament. 
It’s day 3 for New Girl at the hospital and she spent the whole night roosting on the ledge.
It looks like she’s set to do the same again tonight. Interestingly, she’s using the exact same spot as Charlie, against the wall.
Tom
Tom has been trying to entice her in the nest box and only succeeded once but that was because he had a bit of food which she snatched off him and then she left 
😉
He brought her a feral Pigeon which she ate for about an hour before putting the rest in the larder on the ledge.
She started to spend some time at the camera end of the ledge and she’s now used to the noise of the camera when it is moved so I have managed some close ups. I have managed to read the first 3 characters of her ring, I am now confident I should be able to get it all and then we’ll know where she comes from…
(On Tuesday, on her first visits to the ledge, she was flying away as soon as I would move the camera, which was one indication that this was neither Tom or Charlie – it’s not taken her long…)
They mated on the ledge for the first time at 3:30pm.
Will there be the patter of big feet after all this year…
She still has blood on the feathers on her right legs and she appears to be injured on her left bottom eyelid which gives her a bit of a funny look. Was that there before or is it a result of the fight…?
Look wise, she looks a lot more like Tom, her chest is white like him not honey like Charlie’s and her cheek patches go a lot higher than Charlie.
Tom paid 2 visits to the nest ledge today.
He spent around 5 minutes during the morning visit, here is a clip of most of it:
In the afternoon, he was hoping Charlie would join him for a display, here is is popping his head out of the box looking at her at the other end of the ledge:
A couple of attempts at courtship displays today.
It all started early, before the cameras had switched back from night setting, with Tom landing on the nest ledge, followed by Charlie. Tom went to the nest box.
But Charlie preferred to eat.
After she’d finished eating, Charlie went to cache the remains in their usual spot on the ledge, feaked for a bit and was sitting when Tom decided to go in the nest box and tried to entice her for a display.
But, it looks like she wasn’t interested.
So he finished the remains instead.
Later in the afternoon, I was walking through the cemetery, when I heard Peregrine calls and saw Tom land on the corner of the nest box. A minute later I saw Charlie arrive from the South, circle a bit and then land on the ledge at the other end. Tom immediately went into the box but Charlie took her time and by the time she got to the nest box Tom had gone on the wall.
Her turn to try and entice him and fail 😉
“What have I done to deserve this?”
A great start to 2019!
