Christmas Day 2023
I dropped into town on Christmas Day and was delighted to see both the resident peregrines giving us much hope for another breeding season in 2024. The female was eating a pigeon on the webcam cover placed on the original turret they had used for their scrape. The male flew in later to the to of the spire.
I stood outside Patten’s Bar and watched in amazement as the male dropped like a stone and tried to catch a white pigeon. He failed on this occasion.
New Year’s Day 2024
On this day I parked in the cathedral close on my way to see the mighty Canaries play and was fortunate to see the two adult peregrines that have raised several broods. Sadly in 2023 their two chicks died at several weeks from an unknown cause.
14 January 2024
I saw both adults again and at times quite close to each other and also saw them on parts of the church I haven’t seen them before so was nice to get some different angles. I also saw the male attempt to catch another pigeon on the tower by dropping from the top of the spire.
27 January 2024
On this cold morning I saw both adults eventually – they were nowhere to be seen at 8:45am. The female first flew in and quickly flew off. I noticed this morning that both were quite active hunting close to the church chasing pigeons without success several times. I used my 2 x tele-converter with the 150-400mm with integrated 1.25 x tele-converter. This gives a 35mm equivalent of 2,000mm!
1 February 2024
I popped into town this morning and saw the male on the top and had some nice chats with passers by. I went into Central Cafe & Tea Rooms (most excellent) where I heard Jane Dell calling my name. She was in town to help Tim Mackrill clear out the old gravel from the scrape sites. We have seen the female scraping in the original scrape so it may be they use that one this time.
7 February 2024
24 February 2024
Popped into town late afternoon and have been taking more videos and this time was videoing the tiercel when he again dived from the top of the spire – this is the third time I’ve seen him do this in 2 months. There was a group of people looking up at the spire as they were wondering what I was filming. They all saw the action. I thought I heard the thump as he hit the pigeon but he didn’t hold on and he flew around and back to his high perch.
25 February 2024
I dropped into town this Sunday afternoon around 1:45pm. The male was at the top of the spire on All Saints’ Church. He flew off towards St Mary’s Church. I moved to the corner of Red Lion Square and I was able to see a peregrine on the church. I assumed it was the male as I’d seen him fly that way earlier. As I watched the peregrine flew off and made a bee-line for the tower that was their scrape for the first two years and emerged immediately with a pigeon with it despatched whilst flying towards St Mary’s.
Upon checking my photos this was the falcon and not the tiercel. She had clearly seen the pigeon entering the scrape and knowing the scrape meant the pigeon would not see her coming and so she flew at pace directly there and effected the kill. I checked on Google Maps and the distance is 221m which is actually quite easy for a peregrine. Here are a couple of pictures of the Falcom with the kill, a montage and below the view from the webcam. Pigeon had no chance!
21 March 2024
I had hoped to capture either display flying or mating. I spent several hours watching the falcon and the tiercel this morning. The tiercel was sat at the top of the spire of All Saints’ with the falcon half way up the spire. I focused the video onto the falcon and recorded about 10 4 or 5 minute shots where there was absolutely no action at all with neither bird moving. As soon as I took the camera off the tripod and just changing to still shooting the tiercel dropped off his perch made 1 tight turn above Barn Hill he alighted on top of the female with a very quick mating (<2 seconds).
22 March 2024
I dropped into town around 2pm and thought I’d only intended to spend an hour or so there I had a lot of people chatting to me in the square and ended up bumping into Edwin Timewell. I talked to a young lady who said she had video of a peregrine on the ground with pigeon – she showed me and it was a juvenile in 2021. I encouraged her to upload the footage which she did. They clearly showed VJP in the graveyard around St George’s in Stamford (Turns out she had been with Colin Lee who takes photographs of the Lincoln peregrines). VJP went on to raise his own family in Yaxley, Peterborough in 2023 and looks like doing so in 2024. Edwin and I also witnessed the tiercel attack a pigeon but miss – though the photos I took show a trail of feathers behind him as he returned to All Saints’ so a close miss!. We also saw some display flying where the tiercel appeared to flush out a pigeon from around last year’s scrape. We also saw a pair of sparrow hawks causing mayhem amongst the pigeons in the square (1st picture).
1 April 2024
I didn’t intend to spend time in Red Lion Square this morning but a screw up with my diary meant I wasn’t actually supposed to be at the Leisure Centre at 9am so I went into town instead (I usually have my camera with me).
Male was on the spire whilst the falcon was sitting on her eggs. He was up and off the spire several times returning 3 times with nothing to show.
I watched a sparrow hawk and crow mess about. Can’t imagine a sparrow hawk is a threat to a crow so were they just playing? Or am I anthropomorphising?
I heard the male alarm calling as a red kite strayed close and whilst before eggs he was happy just to shout from his perch this time he launched himself and saw off a pair of red kites.
Eventually the female was spotted outside her scrape as if to signal to the tiercel he should extract talon. We’ll he did just that bringing a pigeon in which he stashed and then nearly taking another pigeon not paying attention. She came out and alighted half way up the spire and he took his place on the egg sitting duty.
Tiercel
Tiercel
7 April 2024
It was beautiful in Red Lion Square this morning at 7:15. Brisk but lovely and sunny (and a bonus that I didn’t have to wipe the bench of condensation!). Around 7:30 the tiercel arrived to loud squawks with food for the falcon. She hopped off the eggs and promptly took the breakfast onto the outside of the main tower.
Here are also a few GIFs – 1) Female poop, Female take off and female hover.
10 April 2024
Male brought some food for the falcon around 7:50 this morning and they swapped incubating duties.
I noted a peregrine flying in to the top of the spire at 8:08am that I did think looked to be flying differently and because it had it’s back to me I didn’t notice it was a ringed juvenile! Ring read as “V6D” ringed female from Bottesford May 2023. Saw no argy bargy with the resident pair so will be interesting to see if she hangs about or is tolerated if she tries. She’s a stunning looking bird too.
First 2 pics our falcon, then 2 of the juvenile visitor and lastly the tiercel flying.
11 April 2024
Tiercel was already on the main tower this morning at 7:20am with breakfast which he offered to the falcon. He took off to the top of the spire but she didn’t move until she had succeeded in calling him down onto the eggs. See the bottom video for this. I’m chuckling at the end because it is funny how she is calling him quite urgently. She then took off past St Mary’s church with the prey.
Pictured is the tiercel who is looking pretty proud of himself! Also saw a sparrow hawk, buzzard and several kites. This one was eating something on the wing.
12 April 2024
A few pictures of the tiercel
14 April 2024
Spent a long time in the square this morning and the male didn’t do a great hunting job!
We did have another intruder though! Pictured is a female seen circling the All Saints’ spire at just before 11am. The resident female was on the eggs and the male was atop the spire – he did call a couple of times but this bird flew away fairly quickly.
Also a couple of videos – 1 of the male calling when a sparrow hawk (I think) got a bit close and flying off and another showing the male flushing out a couple of pigeons from the bush on the outside of their scrape.
17 April 2024
I took some high speed (slow motion) video of the tiercel arriving with prey above their scrape and the falcon immediately grabbing the prey before glaring at the tiercel until he left.
Also he made a dive attack on one of the pigeons in the bush situated on the outer wall of their scrape.
28 July 2024
Falcon drops down
Stuart Wilson Photography 