Thursday 30th August

This blog is a year old today! It has taken a year for me to see a Peregrine catch a pigeon, I have seen partially successful strikes, and many chases but never a kill. This morning was different. To start I watched a Buzzard circle slowly over Leigh Woods and out towards Portishead, until he disappeared below the tree line. When he was near the sun caught the brown and gold in the feathers, until he became a black circling silhouette. The Peregrine first came from the same direction, from over the Downs, flying quite high, but then stooping into the Gorge in front of me and then rising higher and higher, turning the dive into a drive upwards.
My heart in hiding,
Stirred for a bird, - the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
A Peregrine does not hover, he seems to hang in the air, sometimes gliding, and with no apparent effort. A slight folding of the wings brings him into a high speed stoop.
This display continued, also due overhead for quite a while, the bird getting higher and higher until he must have been over 200 meters up. then he flew over towards Leigh Woods with rapid, pigeon-like, wing beats, and stooped .... this time he separated one of two pigeons, and took it from underneath and behind, low above the trees opposite me, then swinging around and carrying the bird to land on the quarry slope opposite. Bad move! In a flash the two Ravens, who must have been hiding in the trees were onto him, he picked his kill up, but was no match for the Ravens, and he dropped it into the trees beside the quarry gate. I think the Ravens lost it as well, at least they were still flying after harrying the Peregrine. The Peregrine, it must have been in sheer frustration on being deprived of his kill, swooped at one of the Ravens, the Raven dodged hastily, and the Peregrine sped off, disappearing towards the Suspension Bridge.
He reappeared flying slowly and towards us, this time to the delight of three other visitors - the women said they had never seen a Peregrine before, the man described how he had had his van showered with feathers from a Peregrine strike in Broadmead!
The Peregrine started his hunt again, rising higher and higher, again overhead, but also over towards the Zoo, then around and over the Suspension Bridge, rising to maybe 500 meters when I lost him in an eye-blink against the clouds. The markings and size of this Peregrine make me think that this was the young male - the tiercel (or tercel) to falconers.