Monday 24 March 2008

Peregrines and Ospreys

It's good to see Peregrine Falcons along the Kingsdown cliffs again - they've been infrequent over the last few years, keeping more to the higher cliffs between St Margaret's and Dover. These photos are not mine, although I've seen a Peregrine on my last few visits to the sea - they were taken by Steve Ray, who has not yet been persuaded to publish his shots.This bird has caught a Starling, and can be identified as a juvenile by the vertical barring on its body.
This compares with an adult (below) with horizontal barring.
Regretably I've not yet seen an Osprey flying over Kingsdown, but on Saturday we went down to Cardiff to watch the Swansea-Neath Ospreys (i.e. the Welsh team) play Saracens in the Millennium Stadium.
Despite the much-vaunted retractible roof, it was not closed to keep the freezing north wind and occasional snow out, so it was a long cold afternoon....
...especially as there were two games to watch. Not complaining though, as the game between Wasps and Leicester was a cracker, with plenty of stars on view.

2 comments:

Mary said...

Those are great falcon pictures!

Sandpiper (Lin) said...

Wow! Those pictures are wonderful!! Sad to see the poor little bird being carried, but fascinating to watch nature in action, too.