High above the lighthouse at the northern most tip of the Great Orme at 8am
this morning, a pair of peregrines were in courtship display, chasing each
other in synchronised flight, sometimes coming quite close to me, at other
times quite distant, they rolled around in the air and occasionally one bird
would flip upside down and offer it's talons to the other. I didn't hear any
calling. Not particularly obvious from the photos but one bird, the female,
was considerably larger than the other.
I'd got there early at 6:30am in order to do a sea watch. It was windy but the
conditions were not ideal with the wind direction being south west rather than the preferred north west, and obviously the end of July is also not a great
time for a sea watch, yet even so I managed 5 Manx shearwaters and about 10
gannets, so I was happy with that.
I suppose it is obvious which is the larger bird! The female had a very dark underwing compared to the male.
I love this series of photos as she climbs up to him upside down.
I'm assuming that they were grasping talons in this photo.
For the sea watch I used the old WWII pill box just north of the lighthouse as shelter from the wind. Unfortunately the windows are a little too high to allow me to use the scope on a tripod but I was able to rest it on the concrete which worked well enough today.
Apart from the shearwaters and gannets, the best birds were at least seven adult black guillemots on the water close in.
Western gorse.
Juniper growing on the western side of the Orme.
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