2019 | update

A London bird!

Byadmin April 10, 2019

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.

There is a new girl in town…
April 3, 2019 2019, courtship, update
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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 😉
2 Jan 2019 – courtship
January 2, 2019 2019, courtship
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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!
Days 5 and 6 of New Girl
April 8, 2019April 8, 2019 2019, courtship
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#atitlikeperegrines a hashtag we used for Tom and Charlie a few times over the years, and one that could be used for Tom and New Girl on Saturday: 7 times they did it on the ledge that day, including 3 within one hour (6.32, 6.49 and 7.09am)… ‘Only’ 4 times on Sunday 😉

Tom finally got his wish on Saturday when she joined him for a courtship display inside the nest box 🙂 He was so excited, bouncing all over the nest box, as she appeared on the wall by the nest box before jumping inside the box 🙂 She usually stays put where she is and doesn’t really join in.

Tom paid one of his night visits on Saturday, arriving and going inside the nest box at 3.38am and staying there until 4.51am.

Talking of night time, New Girl has been roosting on the ledge both nights but she gets fidgety at times and moves around a bit. She even spent a bit of time on top of the nest box.

She has been staying on the nest box a bit during the day as well. I spent a couple of hours on Saturday watching her and Tom. She disappeared from sight and we were wondering where she’d gone. Turns out she’d gone onto the nest box and we couldn’t see her from the old FledgeWatch spot.

Another distinguishing feature is some rather prominent ‘whiskers’.

Tom has kept her very well fed with a good stream of Feral Pigeons.

New Girl quickly figured out the location of the ledge cache.

Just a few random shots…
14 January 2019
January 14, 2019 2019
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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:
4 – 6 January 2019
January 7, 2019 2019, courtship
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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.
19 January 2019: 1st mating on camera of 2019
January 21, 2019January 21, 2019 2019, courtship
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Early afternoon on Saturday 19th January Charlie arrived on the ledge and after a short while decided to pancake on the wall of the ledge. I find the following video interesting as it shows her settling, with a better angle than when she does this on top of the nest box as she tends to face the camera there.

She pancaked for a few minutes but got up quite quickly and moved to perch on top of the nest box instead.

There, she decided to pancake again and even have a bit of a snooze.

At 1.48pm, she suddenly got up and started bowing, I thought she was going to have a courtship display with Tom but no. Instead, Tom came and mated with her! This has to be the earliest mating on camera for this pair. I had been wondering a few times a few days before if it was about to happen, from the way Charlie was presenting herself…

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