Thursday 13th September

In contrast to yesterday, this morning was bright and sunny with a clear blue sky, I arrived at the Peregrine Watch around 8.30, and the bouts of activity from over in the quarry kept me there until 9.45. A Heron, then a Cormorant flew down river, there were Mallard flying up and down and swimming on the river. Then a Peregrine appeared flying near the Watch, circled around several times and disappeared beneath us - probably a young female. Next a Peregrine (the same one?), started flying around the quarry opposite, but rather than landing, it flew about the tree tops, nearly colliding with them on some occasions, then landed at the top of the yew tree, where it remained. I watched a Jay fly past it, then the Peregrine disappeared. It reappeared again, flying just above the tree tops around the quarry, then landed. This was repeated several times, landing in different trees, but it then landed again at the top of the yew tree, and was now mobbed by a pair of Magpies, they all, Peregrine and Magpies, hopped back and forth at the top of the tree, and whilst it was difficult to see what was happening, the Magpies were very persistent, keeping the Peregrine moving around to avoid them. The Peregrine flew again, spending some time gliding around before ending up at the top of the banana tree. I left it sitting there. This was all rather curious behaviour for a Peregrine - that is the way it was flying around for a relatively long time without landing. At one stage I was watching a couple of Jackdaws on the cliff, when the Peregrine appeared from above and pursued something into a tree below, it was so fast, and both pursuer and pursued just disappeared.

Apart from the birds, a man and his dog were in the quarry, from his attention to the ground, I suspect a naturalist. There was an accident on the Portway just after 8.30, and this kept the traffic off for most of my stay - it was noticeably quieter!