More mating Peregrine

Our south coast Peregrine were busy mating again this morning,  Well it is Valentine's Day  and this time I was fortunate to be in the right place as the female flew to one of her favoured mating points to capture a few front facing images as the male arrived seconds later.

Mating Peregrine

This fine pair of known Peregrine have been mating for several weeks now but today is the first time that I have been in the right place at the right time to record their union this year,

Clifftop Mating Peregrines.

On  south coast of Cornwall clifftops a female Peregrine patiently waits for her male partner to return from hunting to mate.

When she sees him arrive back in their territory she bows her head in a submissive pose and calls 

He immediately responds and flies straight in to balance on her back and skillfully mates without any support from the cliff ledge.

When the male departs just seconds later he pushes off from the females back finally toppling her over but these rough conditions and mating behaviour have hopefully got this fine pair of birds of prey off to a good reproductive start to 2020.

The ' Sun ' returns to cornwall

The Sun rises into the sky above St Michael's Mount and explodes over Newlyn Harbour to end three and a half days of cold high easterly winds and heavy rain.  I was free to roam again to look for the local wildlife and today I started with a pair of mating Peregrine.  Moved onto a pair of Raven with three chicks in their nest and witnessed both birds in an aerial dispute with local Buzzards and finally I got my first far to short sighting of a very large green looking 'Common'  Lizard which I shall be back looking to identify shortly.

Peregrine at their Peak

During the planned study of a pair of Peregrine mating on the south Cornish coast the ten images posted below were part of a burst of 102 images taken in just over 10 seconds this morning.

I worked at a distance of around 100 metres using a Nikon 500mm F4 lens and 1.7 Tele-converter on a Nikon DX D500 all setup on a fixed position using a sturdy Gitzo tripod and fired the sequence by remote shutter release.

To capture this sequence involved many hours and days of watching and waiting for the birds to perform in the right location but when they did ever single exposure was correct and focused which demands credit where it is due to the performance of the equipment used

A female Peregrine flies into a regular perch point on the south coast,

The female is immediately followed by a male and both birds move skillfully into a mating union with the male landing softly on the females back

The pair go straight into mating mode with the female balancing the weight of both birds on a small 150 foot high cliff ledge

The mating sequence lasted just over ten seconds from start to finish with the female calling encouragement to the male throughout.

 The male dismounts at the end on the sequence without his feet ever having touched the ground during his entire impressive performance and the female was still shouting encouragement to him after he left

Mating Peregrine

A male Peregrine answers a females call to mate and takes off immediately to fly to her perch point about one hundred metres further along the south coast cliffs.

When he arrives she has already adopted a submissive mating position and the male flies straight onto her back taking care to tuck back his sharp talons.

The mating lasts between 10 to 20 seconds and finishes with a graceful flying dismount.

Light levels were poor at the time but I ended up with around seventy images of this premium Peregrine behaviour in the can and was pleased with the sequence of images posted here.