South Coast Peregrines

I ventured out on our coldest morning so far this winter with the thermometer reading -2c   With a clear sky and the promise of some good early morning light I headed down to Longrock fields looking for Roe Deer sightings but no joy there so I moved on along the south coast in a biting wind to check out local Peregrines.

The sun was now above the horizon and I found them sheltering from the easterly wind on a high well lit rocky clifftop,  They were perched at distances of between one and three metres from each other for the following thirty minutes or so but the female was restless and her body language said that she was hungry.

Within a few more minutes she was off on the hunt as she disappeared over the clifftop.  She was back no more than five minutes later with a small kill locked in her talons and this time she put more distance between her and the male suggesting that this male Chaffinch was not for sharing.

                              

She quickly devoured the prey and and then rested up with her feathers all fluffed up for the next hour to combat the effects of that biting cold wind that was by now beginning to make me shudder so I took my last shot of her trying to regurgitate a pellet of bones and feathers etc and headed for home to put a few logs in the burner.

Spike Might

This rather aggressive looking Grey Heron which I have named 'SPIKE' has just flown in and knocked another Grey Heron off of a favoured perch point on south coast cliffs.

The Heron that was so rudely ejected flies round in a circle with the intention of returning to:                                                                                                                                                  'Its Perch'

But Spike is having none of it and turns to face his Aggressor.

The incoming bird stops short on the next rock and tries to intimidate Spike who is like a gun slinger: Poised and ready for action!

The incoming bird decides that it didn't want that rock anyway and Spike notches up another win.

He now stands proud again as he holds his new territory in the 'Wild West' of Cornwall

Flying for the love of Life !

Ask anyone that has spent some time watching Peregrine about their flight habits and they will tell you that they don't waste much excess energy doing it.

But just occasionally you might witness a Peregrine:  'Flying for the love of life'  and that was my pleasure with a known female on the south coast of Cornwall yesterday morning.

This bird had already taken and eaten prey which might not look to obvious in the above shot taken before she lifted off but take a look at the side shot of her belly as she re-landed at the same take-off location in the final shot of this blog. That's one full Peregrine !

So the magnificent soaring, swooping and graceful gliding display that I watched from this powerful bird of prey which lasted for several minutes around the cliff tops was very special and all just for fun

Female Kestrel Portraits

This set of Female Kestrel images were taken this morning while we both waited for the male to re-enter the location to mate with the female as posted in the previous blog,

Kestrels are one of my favorite birds around the coast of Cornwall and I am always happy to spend what ever time it takes with them to capture their general behaviour,

Peregrine aerial prey hand-over

A few days ago I had the good fortune to capture an aerial prey hand over between a pair of Peregrine,  In the first shot above the smaller male bird has dropped prey which the female grabbed within  her large talons before it had fallen a metre,

The female then flew in my direction and landed on a favoured plucking ledge to dispatch the remnants of a luckless pigeon.

The Male bird had already taken his share of the prey before handing it over so he left the female to finish off the rest.

Peregrine prey Hand-over

The image above forms part on the sequence of images below that show a male Peregrine handing over prey to a typically aggressive larger female that physically rips the blackbird prey out of the males mouth.

She then  transfers the blackbird to her talons and departs still screeching while she puts some distance between them so that she can consume the prey alone.

This might all seem to be a bit over the top but she will shortly be raising a new family and they will then all be dependant on the males capability to provide them with prey.