Sunday, Monday, July 29th, 30th

On Sunday morning we were treated to a stunning display of peregrine "tag" around the trees on the other side of the river, the young male and one of the two females were playing; they dived, chased pigeons, chased each other, and generally fell around the sky close too, and among the trees. No other bird could fly in this acrobatic way, and these were only the young Peregrines - well they did not catch any of the pigeons! In between the bouts of flying, and there were several, they landed in trees or in the quarry opposite.

One of the two female youngsters has damaged a leg - it dangles down when she flies - we saw the undamaged female on Sunday. Today I saw the female with the damaged leg, she seems to have been nicknamed "dangle foot"! She was also playing tag with her brother, but this was less boisterous, and the brother was doing most of the chasing. Again they both landed in the trees, but also behind the birch tree in the quarry opposite. "Danglefoot" seemed to be landing alright, when I could see, but mostly went into the bushes. When she flew the leg was very obvious through my glasses. Can she survive? It is very doubtful with such an injury. The parents must still be feeding these birds since they do not yet look too efficient at making a kill.