Peregrine ends Jackdaw truce

Back on the 17th March I published a blog called Peregrine Behaviour and in it I highlighted a pair of Jackdaw that were not only nesting within close proximity to a Peregrine scrape but  they also seemed a little fool hardy in sharing the same perch points from time to time.

Well today I watched as the male Peregrine and one of the Jackdaw exited the cliff face simultaneously and several minutes later the male Peregrine returned with the Jackdaw......... But this time it was firmly locked into the Peregrine's lethal talons.

So the moral of the story is :

 Don't put to much faith in a Peregrine especially around Lunch Time !!

This final shot shows the Peregrine tucking into his kill with feathers flying everywhere.  But dont be to hard on the Peregrine,  They only take what they need to survive and you never see a fat one !!

Peregrine Touch Down

 I spent the morning on the North Cornish coast watching Birds of Prey and got some joy with the Peregrine Touch Down sequence posted below.

The weather varied from raining through cloud cover to bright spells of sunshine and it was perhaps a shame that this sequence occurred during a cloudy period.

But when the chips are down and I have such a skillful pinpoint Peregrine landing sequence to capture I'll always take my chances with the weather as it comes.

   

Birds of Prey Today

The above sequence montage of a female Peregrine take-off was formed from today' portfolio of images of various birds of prey photographed along the North coast of Cornwall,

The Juvenile Peregrine portrait below is of one of the bird above's three fledgling from last year and it was seen here today as it begged for an aerial prey hand-over from its mother which took evasive action and ignored its plea.

Other Birds of Prey seen today included the Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel images posted below.

Daddy Long-Legs

This particular Daddy long-legs is a male toad that I disturbed while reducing weed growth in my garden pond,  I did my best not to disturb it to much and every time it popped its head up I took a few shots of this guy with his amazing bulging amber eyes and after a few encounters I even captured a few images as it croaked away presumably still looking for a late Mate !!

The toad finally abandoned its cover and climbed up onto floating weeds to provide me with a rather warty looking portrait and surface reflection that excluded those over sized Daddy long-legs

Buck Roe Deer

A fine buck Roe Deer puts in what seems to be a rare appearance to check out the females in fields at Longrock.  It makes a casual and slow move in the direction of two doe Roe Deer that are foraging close to the hedgerows.

The females accept him in their presence but are keeping a close eye on his movements as they know that he is always looking for an opportunity to mate.

The male try's to move in closer while still feeding but the females are not fooled.

The closest female starts to skip away and sets up the same reaction from the second female.

This leaves the buck alone to consider his tactics for the next time they meet.

He then seemed to pick up another scent coming from behind the hedgerow and moves off immediately to investigate.

With one last look around the field this fine buck then effortlessly clears the wire boundary and is off looking for greener pastures and perhaps more accommodating females !!!

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.

Easter Bunny

'I dropped into Marazion Marsh early Am and one of the first subjects that came up in my viewfinder was the cute little Easter Bunny pictured above.

Other subjects included several pairs of Moorhen,  The resident Mute Swans have built this years nest in open view on one of the small islands.

Three Little Egret were all busy fishing along the warren water margins.

Several Pair s of Grey Heron were coming and going to tree nests along the railway line.

And as I left I disturbed an unseen Buzzard on the ground of the rabbit warren that resettled on one of the distant railway signal assemblies waiting for me to leave,