
On Monday there were bunches of flowers above Black Rocks at Sea Walls to lament yet another young girl's death; someone had removed them by Tuesday? The contrast with my weekend (birthday on Saturday 26th, and our Ruby Wedding Anniversary a week earlier), for the family who had lost a loved daughter and sister, is terrible. The other flowers, just above the Peregrine nest, for another young girl, have faded but are still there.
The Peregrines were flying each day, sometimes briefly, with only a glimpse as they came into the cliff, other times noisily as a young bird chased a parent for food. They do mew a little like kittens! The mystery of the brown seagulls was finally laid to rest as I watched all three young birds begging from a Lesser Black Backed Gull parent. Perched on the rocks exposed by a low estuary tide, these young gulls blend perfectly into the background. An unusual sight on Tuesday was of a Buzzard flying low down over the river, it caused the gulls on the mud to get up and chase it as it passed.
