Fairly near to where I live in northwest Oxfordshire a pair of Peregrines choose to nest on a medieaval church in the heart of a rural village. I went to see them a month ago see here and at the time the female was sitting on eggs or at least I assumed so, presuming she was invisible on her rudimentary nest at the top of the church. The male however sat on guard lower down on the church and was very obvious Today. one of not dissimilar sultry heat to my last visit I returned to see how they were getting on. Standing at the edge of the churchyard, with the pepper spice scent of a nearby stand of purple lupins in the air I soon saw the female perched on a buttress, high up on the church tower.
Of the male there was no sign but after fifteen mimutes he flew in calling and carrying an unidentified prey which presumably meant they now had young to feed.
The female, larger than the male continued on her perch while he flew around calling.There was a builder working on a lower part of the church roof but this did not appear to disturb the female who remained contentedly on her perch although taking a keen interest on all that went on about her..
Occasional bouts of calling between the two would emanate from on high as the male returned to the church on several occasions but would only circle, then depart calling loudly and still carrying its prey and I grew concerned that the builder was causing him to stop landing to feed the young.
Peregrines are classed as a Schedule 1 species under The Wildlife and Countryside Act and it is an offence to disturb them when they are nesting but thankfully any quandary about saying anything to the builder was resolved when he finished whatever he was doing and departed.
It is not often one can have the privilege of getting so close to these charismatic birds and as I.walked around the church, at the base of the walls were many pigeon feathers which suggested that the falcons have a ready supply of food to feed their young. Woodpigeons and their feral cousins being their favourite prey.
Peregrines pair for life and can commence breeding once they are two years old.They do not make a nest as such but the female lays from two to four eggs in a rudimentary bowl scraped in shingle and debris on the flat surface of a church tower or ledge.
I have no idea how many young they have this year for, as I previously mentioned it is illegal to disturb the nest even if it were possible to get access to it but I plan to return in a couple of weeks to see if the young have fledged and hopefully I will be able to see how many young this pair have produced.
The young fledge between 38-44 days after hatching and their first flight is critical. Peregrines fledging on a church such as here are at risk of falling to the ground and if they do there are no perches on the church walls to aid them regaining the nest site. Their maiden flight usually extends about 70 metres from the nest site before they circle to return but inexperience means they can lose height and end up at on the ground or in this case at the base of the church walls making them vulnerable to predators such as foxes and cats
It will be two to three months before the young become independent of their parents but even if they reach this stage between 70-80% of all young Peregrines are known to die in their first year of life while the fortunate minority that do survive their first year can live for up to fifteen years.
I will finish with an excerpt from J A Baker's The Peregrine, an absolute classic of nature writing and sadly long out of print. Baker was a retired librarian and for ten years obsessively studied wintering peregrines in the Essex estuaries near his home.An environment and existence about as far removed as possible from the cosy church and village environment where 'my' pair of peregrines have made their home. But nevertheless they are one and the same.
'Rain began, and the peregrine returned to the brook.He flew from an elm near the bridge, and I lost him at once in the hiss and shine of rain and the wet shuddering of the wind He looked thin and keen and very wild.When the rain stopped the wind roared into frenzy.It was hard to stand still in the open and I kept in the lee of the trees. At half past two the peregrine swung up into the eastern sky.He climbed vertically upward, like a salmon leaping into the great waves of air that broke against the cliff of South Wood. He dived to the trough of a wave, then rose steeply within it, flinging himself high in the air, on outstreched wings exultant.At five hundred feet he hung still, tail closed, wings curving far back with their tips almost touching the tip of his tail. He was stooping horizontally forward at the speed of the oncoming wind.He rocked and swayed and shuddered, close hauled in a roaring sea of air, his furled wings whipping and plying like wet canvas'
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