Ally Pally Ornithology

As the schools were closed yesterday I took a day off with the family and went tobogganing down the Ally Pally slopes with some of the kids' school friends.

Late in the afternoon one of the fellow "school dads" a keen Twitcher or bird spotter pointed out a majestic looking bird swooping across the front of Alexandra Palace and pursuing a pigeon down the hillside towards the Hornsey gasometer.

It was correctly identified as a young Peregrine Falcon - a remarkable site to see, in front of me - I was delighted to find that several images had been captured by local photographer and Friend of Alexandra Park StephenMid:
>see the images on Flickr

Here's one of the magnificent and rare bird. Stephen's photo shows "nature red in tooth and claw" as the Peregrine Falcon devours a meal of Feral  Pigeon.

 

This second image shows the location of the bird on the facade of Alexandra Palce just to the east of the rose window.

Peregrine Falcons are usually found nesting in a "scrape" normally on cliff edges I wonder if we might be getting a new resident and exciting addition to the ornithology of Ally Pally?

I hope so.

 

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Permalink Reply by Emmy Beazley on January 23, 2013 at 0:11

Great to find out what that is - I see it all the time down by the racetrack in a particular tree.  :-)

Permalink Reply by Stephen Middleton on January 23, 2013 at 2:42

Brilliant news; whereabouts is the tree or is that too difficult to describe? Thanks.

Permalink Reply by Stephen Middleton on January 23, 2013 at 7:04

Sounds like that was same pigeon that I saw it carrying up to the Palace at 3:50pm on Monday.

I was standing on the terrace looking out over London when I heard a great screeching and the Peregrine Falcon swept towards me carrying the dead pigeon before landing on the Palace and eating its prize. An impressive sight.

Experts seem to think that it is an immature male. Apparently 5 or so years back they nested at the back of the Palace. Anyone interested in Peregrine Falcon in London, there are a couple of websites:

http://www.london-peregrine-partnership.org.uk twitter:   (run by local  )

http://www.fabperegrines.org.uk/ twitter:

It would indeed by superb if it stays around.

Permalink Reply by Lindsey Berthoud on January 23, 2013 at 8:41

Fantastic!! 

Permalink Reply by Kate Franzmann on January 23, 2013 at 15:19

Great News.  I always wondered when they would arrive.  I saw a speedy hawk chasing a smaller one early in the morning a few weeks ago but could not identify it.  A peregrine famlly has nested on the Tate Modern Building for some years.- which, if you are a falcon is not very far away. Perhaps this is one of their young who cannot afford inner city rents.  Our gain

Permalink Reply by Stephen Middleton on January 24, 2013 at 15:04

Check out the RSPB stall by the Boating Lake on Sunday 11am to 2pm.

http://www.bowesandbounds.org/events/rspb-big-gardenbirdwatch-in-al...

Permalink Reply by Laura Davenport on January 25, 2013 at 13:17

Amazing, thanks for sharing photos.

Permalink Reply by Stephen Middleton on February 4, 2013 at 17:54
Permalink Reply by Richard McKeever on February 4, 2013 at 20:53

Wow!

Thanks for sharing these terrific photographs Stephen  this one is particularly beautiful>

Permalink Reply by Stephen Middleton on February 4, 2013 at 18:44

And another update just in....

This male peregrine is the sole offspring from last year of the breeding pair on the Tate Modern.

Permalink Reply by Mat Riches on February 5, 2013 at 10:46

Great pics Stephen, thanks for sharing. Out of curiosity, how did you find out such good info on it's background? My dad's a twitcher visiting in a few weeks and I can smell brownie points in the air with this one!

Permalink Reply by Stephen Middleton on February 5, 2013 at 13:54

Mat

You obviously saw the picture with ring and letters.

I looked on twitter and found two very helpful tweeters: Stuart from @LdnPeregrines their website is http://www.london-peregrine-partnership.org.uk and Nathalie from @FaBPeregrines whose website is http://www.fabperegrines.org.uk/ who contacted the ringer at the Tate to check.

The long way (slow response - not yet heard officially from them - is to contact the ringing organisation the BTO at colourringing@bto.org and ask.

Stuart has just sent a link to a picture of "our" Peregrine's dad: http://www.london-peregrine-partnership.org.uk/gallery.html?p=5

I use @FriendsAllyPark for my Alexandra Park tweets and @Stephenmid for everything else (which is a lot less...)

Hope the Peregrine stays around and you can show him off to your father.....

Stephen Middleton (Friends of Alexandra Park)

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