The recent warm weather has made the four young peregrines seek shade and breeze outside their old nest. They are flapping their feeble little wings to gain strength. Soon they will become airborne and the strongest and fastest flying beings in the world.
Meanwhile their father, the tiercel, has been bringing home small parcels of food for them – one a baby blue tit which a youngster swallowed whole. Their mother, the falcon, slipped off her perch on the spire turret and grabbed not one town pigeon but two, one after another. She then attacked a buzzard flying over the cathedral and knocked it so severely that it corkscrewed down into the Pallant House garden and broke its leg, where it was rescued by the RSPB.
The parents had to see off two wandering peregrines, twisting and attacking the trespassers who quickly shot away off the territory, not wanting claws in their face or crippling thump on the back.
If you visit the RSPB stand at the cathedral cloisters cafe you will be sure of a good view through telescope or film camera and chat to the staff about what is going on.
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