Take Away Food

Peregrine Life #9

I worked excessive hours yesterday in Germany in order to get an earlier flight home today. We got turkish pizza delivered to the office and just kept going.

Having got home my first call was to see the peregrines and was told of the  DRAMA I had been missing. The first peregrine fledged yesterday afternoon and spent the night on a ledge of the mill. Only to be found this morning the other side of the road being bombarded by magpies. He had taken cover only to be trapped in an electricity substation. The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust were called and arrived to help. They captured the bird and put him in a box and he was apparently very stressed. They took him to a vet to be checked who gave him the OK but thought he was a bit under nourished. The DWT then returned him to the roof of the derelict mill, after a lengthy period of trying to get authorised access to the mill. He can't be seen on the roof and the parents hadn't visited him. Has he survived the ordeal ? No one knows, let's hope he appears to get food tomorrow.

Meanwhile on the nest the remaining 2 youngsters continue to look out onto the big scary world. In the main shot the mother is taking away a partly eaten jackdaw to encourage them to fly to get more food. You can see in extras that the 2 remaining young are practicing for their maiden flight, but haven't got the courage yet. You can see just how the young wings are much more rounded with longer flight feathers than the adult which will help to assist flying in their first year but restrict their potential speed. The 2nd extra shows how they are practicing take off and landing on the safety of the nest platform.

Fingers crossed for #1 baby.