The plan was to head up to the quarry for an hour with the hope of seeing the Peregrine and/or the Raven and then move on down to Brockholes Wetland for Reece’s first visit in a long while. Best laid plans and all that but we ended up spending the whole afternoon up at the quarry and Brockholes will have to wait until tomorrow. We arrived just after 13.30 and Bill whom informed me about the quarry, arrived soon after just to see if anything was about. Well at the time all that we had seen was the usual Jackdaw, 3 Moorhen, 1 Little Grebe, 1 Coot, 1 Carrion Crow and a Mallard. Robin who we have bumped into a few times down at Brockholes arrived as Bill departed to see 2 Raven fly over and a Male Peregrine drop down at high speed into the quarry carrying prey and alight on the cliff face opposite our position. We were then joined by a local guy who has been visiting the site quite regularly to watch the Peregrine and had even seen a pair displaying on the previous day. We continued to watch the male feed before calling and flying out of view to the opposite cliff face only to return again empty taloned. He took to the air on several occasions displaying speed, agility and a gracefulness in the air unmatched by any other bird I’ve seen.
MALE PEREGRINE FEEDING (DIGISCOPED WITH MOBILE)
We eventually decided to move further around the quarry to see if we could see the female but all we could find were a couple of sites were its prey had obviously met their end. The male didn’t look disturbed by our presence only taking to the air once before returning to the same ledge but we soon moved back not wanting to cause to much disruption. As we returned the Female appeared though from where we are not sure but it flew in and landed near to the Male. Getting back to our original spot we setup again to watch them preen taking to the air and calling on odd occasions. Bill returned and another birder called in just as the female departed. The Raven made several brief appearances at one time returning to what we have been informed was last years nest. A female Sparrowhawk flew in disappearing into some scrub and a Kestrel flew over before we departed.
RAVEN TAKEN BY REECE WITH THE LUMIX
We didn’t log any other birds in the area as we were so enchanted by the Peregrine but from what I remember it seemed very quite with only Chaffinch, Wren and Tit calls heard. Marin Mere early tomorrow with the hope of Reece seeing the American Wigeon then on to Brockholes and you never know we may even call back in to the quarry!
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