This is my 250th entry! Tuesday was cold, grey and unlike a May morning, today, after yesterday's heavy rain, was foggy at the start, but cleared to blue sky and clouds, the remnants of the rain left large puddles and a very humid warm atmosphere.
I spotted the Peregrine almost immediately, she was perched, facing me on a small S-shaped branch on what I later decided was an oak. She sat, firstly like a little gold trophy, then as she began preening her feathers, she showed many different poses. From her crop, I guess she had fed recently, and was sitting in the sunshine digesting her kill.
Forty years ago Geraldine and I visited Kilibegs in Donegal, and I remember going to the harbour to watch a fishing boat discharge a catch of mackerel, the Herring Gulls were diving onto the catch, taking off, and swallowing their booty whole, almost at the same time a huge quantity of white excrement issued from their rear ends. We retreated rapidly! So it was with this Peregrine, it looked as if she had discharged a bucketful! After this she moved to the back of the tree behind the foliage, just visible when one knew where to look.
Whilst I was watching her, one of the others at the Peregrine watch told me that the male was flying around below the cliff, no doubt a brief exercise between sitting on the eggs. The male does help with this, doesn't he? I wonder how many chicks there will be this year?
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