She roosted on the ledge and spent pretty much the whole day there too, she is definitely seeing it as home now I think.
Tom has tried again without success to entice her for a courtship display inside the box. The only time he managed was by taking prey inside with him. Very cunning! But all she did was come in and grab…
He’s managed to mate with her more than once today today as they did it 4 times on the ledge…
One thing I have noticed is that New Girl appears to be a bit messy, Charlie would never have left remains of prey all over the ledge wall…
Tom and Azina mating on the ledge this morning. A different view, from the fixed camera. Azina instigated that one, but it took Tom some time to get the message.
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 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.
I had a message on Tuesday night from Stuart of the London Peregrine Partnership that he’d picked up an injured Peregrine which might be Charlie. She’d been found in a garden North of Hyde Park, had a nasty wound on her back, was bleeding a lot and was very stressed. He’d brought her to the Royal Veterinary College and we’d know more the next day. On Wednesday morning they confirmed that it was indeed Charlie and said that she’d been put on fluids and painkillers somewhere on her own and she would be assessed later. On Wednesday afternoon they said they had euthanised her, the wounds were more severe than initially thought, very deep. She was also underweight and it was thought better not to put her through a lengthy and painful recovery, especially given her age. Today I heard that they found she had an infection around her spinal area, as well as the wounds.
We can only speculate at what happened. She might have been injured in the fight with Flame (Flame was), injuries which resulted in the infection, which weakened her and meant she couldn’t hunt as effectively and she got weaker. She may have brought down in a territorial battle with another Peregrine, mobbed down by Crows, and then attacked by a Fox.
At least she’s not in pain any more.
The next 2 photos are the first and last ones I have taken of her, in both cases I never knew this was to be… The first one was in the evening of the 11 October 2007, when I saw her for the first time still as a Juvenile. The second one was on 1st April this year when she was under attack from Flame.
11 1/2 years.
Follow a few shots from her taken on the nest ledge earlier this year.
She was such a beautiful Peregrine, so laid back, a great Mum.
19 January 2019 Charing Cross Hospital, Fulham, London
19 January 2019 Charing Cross Hospital, Fulham, London
Truly now the end of an era at Charing Cross Hospital.
I have been asked a few times already about a name for New Girl. Obviously, that name is good for now but wouldn’t quite fit if she’s around for years.
I have given it some thought over the weekend. Charlie was named Charlie as I wanted a name that could be both male and female and I based it on *Char*ing Cross Hospital. I couldn’t think of a name for her first mate and ended up calling him Mr C, which suited him very well. Tom’s name is based on the initials of The Other Male.
I have had a suggestion of Violet (because she screams a lot) but she doesn’t feel like a Violet to me, she is a BIG girl.
I have a habit when naming other things/pets to use deity names. Because of the breeding failure history in recent years and the hope that New Girl is bringing of success again I have been looking at deities linked to fertility. And so I am thinking of Damara, which is a British Goddess (and the initial D is after C). But there are others that could work such as Damona, Brigid, Turan…
Or we could call her Mrs T…
