The Blog No. 2

Wild Wanderings

Wild Wanderings 15/1/2023

WET WET WET and the fastest animal on Earth.

WET WET WET might be a great name for a pop combo but it’s not so good as a weather forecast. But that’s what it’s been this week. So I have had to look for a positive and I always remember the reply from my mum on occasions like this. The conversation would be:

DAD ‘Look at the rain…rain rain rain that’s all it’s been’

Mum ‘Well it helps the flowers grow’.

Dad ‘I suppose so’.

I will add, my dad was not an avid gardener being he was born and brought up in the ‘Smoke’ in the West End of London. But I always hold on to that positive vibe and look forward to the flowers of spring or summer, or whenever the scenario takes place.

Anyway, it has been wet, so not much action to report in the ‘Base ‘this week, it’s like a bog over there.

I will get over as soon as I can though and move a few bushes and shrubs while the ground is still soft.

On the wildlife side it’s been pretty average really, just the usual suspects appearing during the breaks in the weather.

One good bit of local news came through on the wildlife grapevine this week. I have several friends and acquaintances in the local area who are all enthusiastic wildlife photographers, one of them, Ian, spotted and managed a good shot of a hunting Peregrine Falcon with prey, a Pigeon. We have local pairs of Peregrine’s’ so they must be expanding their range here. The hunting range of the Peregrine is a bout 13/14 Kilometers so we may get to see more of them. Who knows they may set up home around us, we have quite a few suitable sites.

I can only ever remember a couple of times spotting a Peregrine locally, one time it was a pair flying high and fast, and the other was a single hawk over the nearby quarry.

I often go to the field opposite the quarry and sit with my binoculars watching the many Geese and Ducks and other assorted waterbirds. This time it was mid-summer, the end of July, and the quarry was packed with birds. All of a sudden the whole lot of them ,which I would estimate at 300/400 birds took to the air as one. The noise was deafening. The whole mixed flock circled the quarry repeatedly at roughly the same altitude, about 50 or so meters high, squawking, flapping, and screeching, it was quite a sight. On lifting my field glasses above the flock there he was, the cause of the commotion, a single Peregrine, wings wide, floating above the hoard of birds.

I thought at any moment he was going to stoop, but after several orbits he just turned gained height and was gone.

The gaggling flock slowly settled and drifted back onto the quarry water. This apparently is a behavior Peregrines’ often use, they seem to like disturbing the birds, a bit of a game.

I often wonder if it would be better for the intended victims to stay on the water, it would be more of a problem for the hawk, and a much more dangerous maneuver to dive onto the prey. But I think the panic is an instinctive inbuilt reaction and the hunter knows this.

That was as close as I have been to see this magnificent bird hunting. The stoop of the Peregrine has been recorded at well over 200mph.

How does the Peregrine survive such speeds and the velocity of airflow? To compensate, the falcon has specialized cone-shaped bones protruding from the entrance of its nostrils, called baffles. These bones control the flow of incoming air so the falcon can breathe it safely.

it’s the fastest animal on Earth. And it can take down a Grey Heron on the wing. Amazing Bird.

Have a great Sunday.

RJM