On The Wing

Back Garden, 23 May 2023.

I planted this wisteria floribunda ‘Alba’ in March 2016 and now it is living up to its name with abundant, long tresses of white blossom.

No Fox News from the cemetery but Falcon News is a bit sad. This year they had four eggs of which three hatched. One chick died of some disease, another is being looked after by Wildlife Care and the third (P6T), good news, has fledged.

P6T on Roof of Nesting Box, 23 May 2023. Photo: Nathalie Mahieu.
“Day 42
Update on P6T fledging.
He sat for some time in the spot I’d found him at the junction of the South Wing and East block. He started to show signs he wanted to go but left abruptly spooked by someone walking behind him. He headed to the roof but didn’t manage to get there, hanged onto the slats and then tumbled down. A short while later I saw him behind a window on the 15th floor on the South Wing. These windows are to an open corridor/patio, which I thought was wide enough that he’d manage to get out of it. That unfortunately has not proven to be the case and this is where we left him at the end of the day. I will have to go and rescue him from there tomorrow morning. He’s in a safe place. His parents know where he is, though it took a long time for them to find him it looked like. Azina perched by him for a while but that seemed to confuse him even more. Basically, instead of the roof behind him he could flap to, he’s obsessing about going through the glass window. Azina tried to tempt him with food by perching on the wall above him but that didn’t work.” Fulham and Barnes Peregrines, Nathalie Mahieu.
One often wonders where these fledglings go to when they leave home. Last year’s chick has just turned up in Poole making a nuisance of itself intruding on another falcon’s nest.