Tuesday, 12 March 2019

Wet and Windy Peregrine Dispute




I arrived on the south coast early AM today in very poor light levels and driving wind and rain as a female Peregrine swooped down on a male peregrine that was carrying a Jackdaw prey,   The male took cover on the cliffs shielding the prey from further female attacks.


When things quietened down the male started to pluck and eat its prey in the normal way but this seemed to upset the female peregrine even more and she came swooping in again to steal the prize.




Seeing her coming in again the male timed his exit with the prey just prior to her landing and in doing so he turned full circle and swooped in close over her head to show his disapproval of her behaviour,








The male then put some distance between them ending up perched on the top of the cliffs where he completed his meal without any further interference while the female flew back to one of her more regular perch points and appeared to settle down.


It was perhaps interesting to observe that the females crop in the image above was well extended which would suggest that she had already eaten this morning so it would seem that it was only right that the male bird was looking after his own interest with the second kill

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