Saturday, 20 March 2021

Skyscraper


Under the huge arc of the sky we often feel gloriously pressed up against the heavens in the Fens.  Pushing even harder against the vapours are the towers and lantern of our medieval skyscraper, Ely Cathedral, the eye of the Ely10.  Lockdown#1 favoured the pair of Peregrines that settled late winter 2020 and proceeded, surely aided by a lack of human activity on the tower, to nest and rear young.  It was a hard secret to keep as the adults and subsequently the very showy and vocal youngstars demanded attention over the town - giving frequently tremendous displays as they honed their skills of pursuit on the hapless local pigeons.

They've been territorial again for some time now and a webcam is due to go live on the nest soon.  In the meantime Simon Stirrup has continued to patiently log their activities and has produced more striking images.  The prey item here being a Snipe.  

Me and Ben had a discussion about the potential predator that had left a Snipe for dead on Springhead Meadow a few weeks ago - Ben thought Sparrowhawk but neither of us considered that it might have been a Peregrine.

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