The 3 juveniles continue to provide much entertainment.

I watched them for over an hour this evening (Sat 29th June) flying around St Mary, St James and the Taunton Cricket Ground. This birds are “playing” at all altitudes ranging from high up to Street Level. I watched one so low that it flew around one of the bins in the Canon Street Car Park. They do seem to enjoy the Cricket Ground.

The action tonight from the Juvenile birds (no adults about), aided by a gentle westerly breeze included:
Peregrine on Peregrine: 1 on 1, 2 on 1, 1 on 2, or just formation flying of all three
Peregrine on Gull
Gull on Peregrine
Peregrine chasing Swift.
Hide and Seek on the Cricket Club Floodlights
Hide and Seek around the Towers.
Flushing birds at low level from the trees and bushes.
Hovering, I’m not convinced that this had any future practical purpose and was done just for fun!

For me just fascinating to watch and clearly these three will be catching their own food soon.

All birds disappeared from sight around 19:30.

Hi everyone, I thought that it would be worth providing a brief update on the breeding Peregrine Falcons in Taunton.

1. Four eggs were laid between 31st March and 7th April
2 All four hatched between 9th May and 11th May. Sadly one of the chicks died after a couple of days.
3. JN (Tiercel) has proved to be an ace provider of food with plenty of prey being brought back to the tower.
4. JY (Falcon) is a brilliant mum and has superbly looked after the juveniles. She has often been seen chasing Gulls away from the Church Tower.
5. The three juveniles were ringed blue RX, RY and RZ on 30th May. They were all sexed as Male.
6. All three successfully fledged around 18th to 20th June, with RY proving to be the most accomplished flyer and has been seen chasing prey around the tower.
7 JY and JN continue to bring in prey to the now rather noisy juveniles.

If you are in Taunton, it is well worth stopping by and enjoying the Peregrines.

Also, one additional point is the JY has perfected the art of grabbing prey off the vertical walls of the Church Tower. I have spent many hours watching there birds this year and have very occasionally seen her coming in low and then accelerate upwards before pinning her prey against the stone walls. It’s quick and over in seconds, but stunning to see in real life. Sometimes she drops vertically from the top of tower to flush birds before doing a quick 180 to grab prey.

Many thanks to SOS for supporting this project.

Robin (on behalf of the Taunton Peregrine Project)