Peregrines return

The morning was benign; few birds around with just a couple of siskins flying over the cliffs. Little breeze and a flat-calm sea didn't promise any improvement, unless a raptor or two might flap slowly by as the day warmed up.

But out of the clear blue sky, two shapes shot across the cliff path, the sound of air rushing as they buzzed past the pigeon roost, then steeply climbing up into the sun, calling.
Two Peregrine Falcons, then joined by a third, rolling and tumbling in the air, showing their talons. One - a female? - took up position of a cliff face, watching and mewing as the other two displayed and passed by.
Then she flew off with them into the distance, later to take up another crag where she stood for twenty minutes or so, again mewling when another approached, occasionally dodging a curious bee.
We haven't seen much of the Peregrines this winter, with only one sighting previously in 2009, but they have returned with a vengeance.

There was little to see on the walk back - a few skylarks sang, but there were no yellowhammers or corn buntings to be seen or heard; the early chiffchaffs have moved on and black-headed gulls have left for the breeding grounds. A lone female kestrel sat atop a tree, keeping out of the way of her new neighbours.