Female Peregrine feeding her youngster the remains of a stashed food item
A PEREGRINE FALCON NEST SO CLOSE TO A PUBLIC VIEWPOINT IS A RARE EVENT and an opportunity I couldn't resist. Mark Varley and I took a day off work and made the long journey to see it, enjoying one of our best days out for a long time. Both adults were in close attandance and the female flew in to feed her youngster from a nearby stash early in the morning. I was assured that the presence of numerous people looking into the nest recently had not affected the adults' visits (not to mention a huge and noisy commercial activity that was taking place within 50m of the nest) and was even being encouraged by the folks protecting it. However, it is interesting to note an addled egg still in the nest, which the female had apparently still been incubating from time to time. It was nice to hear that this precious little bird fledged successfully two days after our visit and is apparently still doing well as I write. The surviving Peregrines in Bowland are much more wary than this!
There are few more impressive sights than a Peregrine in flight, it was one of the first birds I learnt how to draw