This morning, in this blog, the RSPB have published this video … … which has prompted this excellent blog by RaptorPersecutionUK.
Tag: peregrine
Peregrines
The results of the 2014 Peregrine survey are now published (not very quickly). It’s good to see the detail although the overview results have been available for quite a while. Peregrines have done well in the lowlands and badly in the uplands. We already know (since 2011) at an even finer grain, for northern England,…
Goyt Valley peregrine – an update
The shooting of a young Peregrine Falcon in the Goyt Valley on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border has been well-covered by our big brother blog, Raptor Persecution UK (see here). Again – they broke the news of a raptor killing – they do that a lot. But there has been follow-up information on the BBC and in…
Inaction speaks louder than words
The most remarkable aspect of the preliminary results of the 2014 national Peregrine survey (organised by the BTO but I read about it here) is that the UK population of this species has hardly changed in 12 years – a 3% increase since 2002. The last Peregrine I saw was a couple of weeks ago…
Guest Blog – Today should be Derek Ratcliffe’s National Peregrine Day by Stuart Housden
Stuart Housden writes: On 21st April 1945, seventy years ago, Derek Ratcliffe climbed to his first peregrine’s nest in the north Pennines. He was then a schoolboy at Carlisle Grammar School, but described that day in his memoir In Search of Nature as his ‘red letter day’. In fact, he was almost killed, as the…
Sunday book review – Horus the Peregrine Falcon by John Miles
This book is aimed at children but I’m just a big kid so I enjoyed it too. Horus, a young Peregrine, lives in London and visits many well-known London landmarks. The point is made that he may be safer in the city than if he ventured onto a grouse moor (which did make me smile)….
Sunday book review – Urban Peregrines by Ed Drewitt
I like this book – it’s clearly written, has lots of interesting facts and some cracking images. It took me a while to ‘get’ the cover – that road sign – you’re probably quicker than I am. This is a good book about a bird which represents a conservation success story. Peregrines are much commoner…
Sunday book review – Top Gun of the Sky by Martin Bradley
This is a beautifully illustrated book. It is illustrated and written by Martin Bradley who works at the Exxon Mobil Fawley Refinery in Hampshire (where Peregrines nest). The illustrations are bold and just a little bit different – have a look and you will see what I mean (and see above). The book is aimed…
Miscellany
More birding bits and pieces: After my blog of last week I can now add peregrine to my M1 list (hunting over a field near Luton) and another ‘up-and-about-early’ red kite from the M1 somewhere in Hertfordshire (I think!). Birkbeck: I enjoyed giving a public lecture at Birkbeck on Friday evening – lots of good…
Birding bits and pieces
I’ve done a lot of driving around the country recently – I’ve been collecting motorways. Recently I have ‘got’ M1, M4, M5, M11 and far too much of the M25 as well as glimpses of the M2, M3 and M40 – is there a prize? When you spend a lot of time in a car…