Monday 24th March

I visited Ashton Court with Joanna, Chris, Caroline and Tom and the children. Without the cars on most of the driveways, it is much improved, but parking on the road passing the front of the house should be stopped. Weren't the sequoia trees removed 'to improve the view of the house'! On the way, and just after the Suspension Bridge I passed a Buzzard, wheeling low above the houses. Afterwards, on the way home, I visited the Peregrine Watch, the Peregrines were perched over in the oaks, but were moving around among the branches. I saw them once flying nearby. The ravens are busy on their nest.

Monday, Wednesday 17th 19th March

My visits to the Peregrine Watch and the Downs have been less frequent during the last week - partly weather (cold, rainy and windy), also because I needed to give my allotment a dose of manure! On Sunday 16th I walked past the Peregrine Watch, and saw one of the birds fly by under the cliff, the same happened several times on Wednesday (afternoon). As usual the sighting of the bird takes less than a few seconds as the glide past underneath the cliff. Economical flight! They never seem to move their wings when they pass. Monday was notable as a very high tide, so the water was nearly onto the cycle path. There was also an almost total lack of birds, on the water or in the air. Othertimes the Jackdaws are very active, landing in large groups in and around the Jackdaw Tree, then taking off and flying noisily about the Gorge.

Wednesday, Thursday, 12, 13th March

Wednesday: There was a large (100-ish) flock of Starlings on the Downland beside Saville Road, and the Jackdaw flock was on the grassland beside Circular Road. Not surprising in view of the wind coming up from Avonmouth, it would have been brave Jackdaw that tried to perch in the eponymous tree! I 'think' I could see two Peregrines hiding behind the branches of the oak.
Thursday: Calm, light winds, with high cloud. A Cormorant flew over Circular Road as I came up to Sea Walls, this time there was enough mud for a few Redshank. The tide was coming in; a man with a lurcher dog was examining a little red kayak that had come up river with the storm, I noticed it yesterday. In the oak two Peregrines sat, one a couple of metres above the other, the lower one with a grey back to me, the other with a white chest and black mask. The lower one turned around, and since she looked larger, this was the female. Courting time and Magpies, Jackdaws, Rooks and Crows appear in pairs.

Tuesday 11th March

The spring tide was so high that it nearly overflowed onto the cycle path, but at least this will clear some of the wood chippings! This was also a very wet morning for cycling. A large flock of Jackdaws was circling around the Jackdaw tree, as always they are in pairs, even in flight; a couple of dozen landing in the tree and surrounding bushes. They are very tame, taking little notice of me on a bicycle.

The white blob over in the oak looked a little unfamiliar, then it flew down to join its mate in one of the ivy covered trees - a Wood Pigeon not a Peregrine! I wondered what would have happened if one of the Peregrines had turned up and found a pigeon on its perch ...

Sunday 9th March

Both Ravens were visiting their nest, and the two Peregrines were perched over in the Oak tree, just a short distance apart. The Peregrines flew off over towards Bristol whilst I was watching, at around 9.50am. The tide was high (a spring tide), but just starting to recede, so no waders.
I have just read a fascinating article by Ed Drewitt and Nick Dixon (Diet and prey selection of urban-dwelling Peregrine Falcons in southwest England, E.J.Drewiit and N. Dixon, British Birds, February 2008, 101, 58-67) about the diet and prey of local and other SW Peregrines. An amazing variety of prey birds were identified over a period of nine years. Perhaps of greatest interest was the observation that the Peregrines are hunting at night, or at dusk and dawn. Despite seeing the Gorge Peregrines chasing the Abbots Leigh Wood Pigeons, and occasionally harrying the local Jackdaws, it looks as if these local birds (to the Peregrine cliff nest), are relatively safe!

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 5-7th March

On Wednesday the two Peregrines were clearly visible over in the oak trees, for the other two days they may have been sitting behind the bare branches, but it was difficult to tell. They also seemed to be in nearly identical p[ositions on the latter two days. The Jackdaws have been falling around the sky in strong winds, and the spindly red legs of the Redshank have become more visible in the sunlight. On Friday morning a Curlew accompanied a Redshank in a little circular inlet in the river mud opposite Sea Walls. The difference in size between these two waders is striking, the Redshank half the size of the Curlew. The Ravens seem to be nest building.

Monday, Tuesday, 3rd, 4th March

I have commented before that recognising birds is a problem when there are several species to choose, and these look all rather similar, and they are 100 metres or more below. These two mornings were very bright and cold, with a blue sky, so seeing was good.

Monday there were two birds, moving together as if a pair, this morning a solitary wader. The puzzle was Redshank or Greenshank (or Knot, or ... )? This time the flight feathers did no look like those of a Redshank, and I could not get a good view of the legs, which also looked a bit short for a 'Shank. The bill did no look right for a Greenshank. The mud is thick and soft below Sea Walls, so even a small wader can get its legs messy. Add to this, the change from winter to summer plumage, and juvenile and sex differences ... They could have been Knot!

On both mornings I thought that I saw a Sparrowhawk, first off Circular Road, then this morning at the side of Ladies Mile. But, was it a Kestral? Simply it had a single, prominent bar on its tail, the tail looked rather square and long when perched, a buff red brown, lightly speckled chest, and a greyer head. No, I come back to a Sparrowhawk, but with rather indistinct tail bands. The bird was perched on an Ash stump up the tree, peering around (I got a long hard stare from it), something that Kestrals sometimes do when hunting, but it was also flitting around, like a Sparrowhawk when hunting. (At the end of the month, the uninitiated could well mistake a Cuckoo for a hawk!)

A beautiful red vixen with a neat white tip to her tail was exploring the shrubs below the Peregrine Watch, last year we saw her with her cubs in a similar position.