Tuesday 1st April, Thursday 3rd April

Tuesday was a beautiful bright morning which brought two red foxes out onto the grass and rocks beneath the Peregrine Watch cliffs. To see this part of the cliff base you need to lean forwards over the railings, not easy, and rather dangerous! Chris Jones was there with his camera, the intrepid photographer went right up to the edge and shot a fine set of pictures of the two foxes playing and sitting on the grass. Are there any cubs this year, or did we see the vixen and her dog, or a couple of vixen down there? One, very red fox, looks like the vixen that we watched last summer, sitting with her cubs in the sunshine among the nearby brambles.

Thursday. As on Tuesday, the Peregrines are flying around on the side of Leigh Woods, coming into the oaks, and to the cliff beneath the Watch. However today was a day to see Ravens, four of them. When I arrived a Raven was standing over on the side of its nest, a little later the Raven pair flew into the top of the oak above the Peregrine, and ... the Peregrine disappeared. Then two more Ravens appeared, flying high above the trees, two disappeared off over Leigh Woods, two came our way, gliding high above us, majestic birds, even now with a fearsome reputation in myth and song,
Death like a raven is there at the feast
Ruffle his feathers and drive him to flight
(Nancy Kerr "Break Your Fall" on Station House with James Fagan and Robert Harbron, 2008)
Could a Peregrine kill a Raven? I have no doubt, especially after reading John Baker's account of the demise of a Great Black Backed Gull after a Peregrine stoop - The gull buckled like hot metal. Its head jerked and flopped. The falcon had struck it in the neck ... from a hundred feet up, the gull slid down quite slowly and emptied itself out upon the shingle. The falcon dropped beside it and began to feed. (p172).

As I passed the Peregrine Watch on my first circuit of the Downs, I also had a glimpse of a large brown raptor, flying level with the top of the Gorge , I stopped, but lost it. Buzzard or possibly that Goshawk again?