Local Peregrine Falcons – Falco peregrinus

Today, we got to a local site about 20 minutes after the pair of Peregrine Falcons that live there had gone off hunting…at least according to one birder who was leaving as we arrived. We trekked on and awaited the raptors’ return and in the meantime watched several Red Kite, some Common Buzzard, and a couple of nesting Kestrels.

Peregrine Falcon in flight
Peregrine Falcon in flight

The Peregrines turned up about an hour later, preyless. They darted back to their nest site in the chalk cliff. Travelling fast, but not quite at their stooping speed which can be up to 200mph. One of the pair then zoomed off again to look for lunch, leaving the other to stare at us quizzically.

Peregrine on a chalk cliff, angling its head upwards, I suspect it was getting a clearer view o me, rather than looking at anything in the sky
Peregrine on a chalk cliff, angling its head upwards, I suspect it was getting a clearer view o me, rather than looking at anything in the sky
Peregrines often look at you from odd angles…this is perhaps because they have two sharp central focus points in each eye (the fovea centralis), rather than the one we have for each eye. In the Peregrine, one is for long-distance sharp vision that allows it to pinpoint prey from at least a couple of miles away. The second focus point is for shorter distance vision to help it see its prey clearly as it approaches during the stoop.

Peregrine basically means from abroad/foreign. In Latin per is away and egrine from agri meaning field, so “away field” = abroad. Perhaps it is suggestive of the bird somehow being a wanderer, the etymology is unclear.

Peregrine on its nest site
Peregrine on its nest site staring directly at the photographic intruder some distance away (big zoom lens)

Falcon comes from Latin falcis, meaning curved blade/war sickle, and may allude to the curved beak, the talons, or the wing profile…again, the etymology is somewhat lost in the history of falconry.