Peregrine Update

Readers of this blog will be aware that on Saturday 8th October I encountered a dead Peregrine along Stanklyn Lane.  The bird was colour ringed with a blue ring with black lettering that read 'BT'.   As the wounds were suspicious I contacted the West Mercia police who sent their wildlife officer out to collect the bird and send it to the vets for analysis.

The vets findings from the x-ray showed that there was no shot present in the bird, but it also showed that a bone was broken in one of the it's wings.  This would be more consistent with a collision (possibly with the overhead power lines near where it was discovered).  The chest wound was most likely caused by something feeding on the carrion post death.

I have since been in contact with Ed Drewitt (http://www.eddrewitt.com/Peregrines.htm) who co-set up a Peregrine colour ringing project down at Avon Gorge where a number of birds had been ringed with the same colour rings as the Shenstone bird.  It transpired that this bird was one of the birds from that project and below are a few details that Ed forwarded me:

• 'BT' was ringed as a chick in the Avon Gorge last year (2010) and was one of a brood of 5 (which is high for peregrines).  The brood consisted of 2 males and 3 females.

• The ringing and the chicks were featured on the BBC's Springwatch programme:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Peregrine_Falcon#p00887pq

• All 5 chicks fledged successfully and this is BT's second re-sighting.  This bird was recorded in April this year at the Malvern Hills (Worcs).   There have been no re-sightings of his siblings as of yet.

Below is a record shot that Ed Drewitt kindly forwarded to me that was taken when the bird was sighted by a birder in Malvern.