Peregrines

I've loved watching the peregrine falcons who've been nesting on St George's Church thanks to the webcam. Their behaviour has been fascinating, and captured brilliantly in this blog about them. There's also some great pictures on there - much better than the ones I'm going to share which are either taken with my little camera, or screenshots from the webcam. I saw two interesting bits of beahviour today whcih I wanted to share.

this morning, two of the chicks maaged to flap their wings and jump enough to get onto the top of the platform. the other, who seemed slightly more nervous, edged out along the perching rod:

This was the first time they'd been out of the nest, and what was fascinating was Mum and Dad were watching them - perched on the church, slightly lower down. You should be able to see them on this picture, about a third of the way up, on either side:

They stayed there for ages, just watching, presumeably waiting to help if the chicks flew and got into difficulties, or maybe give them flying lessons.

The other thing that fascinated me was tonight. Two of the chicks were back on the roof of the platform, having come down to eat, but one was in it. She was desperate to join them. She flapped her wings like mad, got to the end of the perching pole and flapped. Even at one point, ran along  the nest flapping. Every so often she gazed up at them. Then finally, she laid down and went to sleep on her own, looking rather sad. Here's some screengrabs, so not brilliant quality:

I felt really sorry for her - she looked quite dejected and sad when she couldn't join her siblings, and kept looking up at them. And yes, I know it's a bird not a person......
I'm not surprised she's keen to get out. Isn't the nest a mess - wouldn't want to be the person taking that down later this year!