39 days ago a very special chick hatched, the only surviving one of Tom and Charlie, the Fulham and Barnes Peregrines that nest every year at Charing Cross Hospital.
Last year sadly neither of the two eggs laid hatched, and this year out of the two eggs laid only one hatched. For the last few years I've been attending Fledge Watch at the hospital where volunteers watch the fledglings take their first precarious flights and are on stand by in case anything happens. This year was no different......
This is the link to the Fulham and Barnes Facebook page which is run by my friend and the Peregrines 'Godmother', Nathalie.
Sadly my photos aren't too sharp today - I've used two lenses that I don't often use anymore, and I don't think my settings are right, but they're good enough to see what happened. Not long after I arrived and set up my tripod for the Bigma lens, and was getting my hand held camera ready for any action shots, a small flock of Starlings went up behind us. Nathalie had already pointed out Tom on the railings above the 15th floor of the hospital and she correctly predicted what would happen next.......Tom suddenly spotted the Starlings too and swooped down. My camera wasn't ready and we could only watch as Tom sped almost as low as 5 metres off the ground and took out one of the Starlings. For a couple of seconds he perched in one of the trees, then took off back to the balcony ledge where the nest box is and where our big chick (ring number orange PF) was waiting. But seconds after landing Charlie flew in, and Tom took the prey to the 'larder' nearby.
And the action didn't stop there, but first here are some record shots of our new almost fledged eyas (peregrine chick).....
This is PF, a male, 39 days old, and already out on the balcony ledge wall taking in his surroundings and practising his wing stretches.......His first appearance on the ledge wall was just over 24 hours ago, so it's all still quite new to him....
The second lot of action happened when Charlie appeared with a large prey, a fat juicy pigeon. She went straight to the ledge and plucked it in front of PF. He was helping himself whilst her back was turned....You can just see the pigeons tail to the right of Charlie...
And then it seemed as PF remembered he was the baby and needed feeding, so Charlie, being the great mum that she is, obliged.....
PF was calling the whole time and occasionally he would flap his wings. You could almost feel his excitement....
Tom, the proud father, watched from a nearby corner......
Charlie is a good experienced mum. She's now raised eight youngsters over the last five years with Tom, and before that there were at least another three with her first 'husband', Mr T (who went missing and was replaced by Tom a month later). So to celebrate our Queen Charlie, here are a couple of photos of her on her own....
It's not just the Peregrines that have youngsters. Where Fledge Watch takes place is at the back of the hospital in the Margravine Cemetery and there were juvenile birds everywhere. Before I arrived Nathalie had seen young Goldcrests and Coal Tits. There were also young Goldfinches, and I managed a couple of photos of juvenile Blackbird and three juvenile Magpies.
More excitement arrived in the form of a new sighting for the cemetery, a budgie, which flew in to the tree next to us. A Magpie spotted it, went after it and eventually grounded the poor thing. Nathalie had bought a cat carrier and blanket with her today, aka the Fledge Watch Kit, and grabbing both we set off to rescue the budgie. We succeeded in scaring the Magpie enough to let go of the poor bird and chased off the Carrion Crow which tried to swoop in on the free food but then spent a worrying few minutes trying to catch the budgie which had taken refuge in a hedge. Eventually the budgie flew out of the hedge and in to the hospital grounds, where we spent another few worrying minutes trying to catch it. Again we were unsuccessful and we have sadly had to leave the budgie to it's own fate.
Fledge Watch. Budgie Watch. What next ?
Canada Geese Watch.....A nice gaggle of geese flew over the roof tops not long after a pair of Greylag Geese flew across the cemetery.
So a very action packed afternoon on Fledge Watch Day 1.
No sign of PF actually making his first flight though, but there's always tomorrow.....
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