Tuesday 27th March 2012

Another glorious warm day (although ice was scrapped off the car window to get here before dawn). Migrants were predictably scarce in the northerly airflow. New in today were singles of Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Chaffinch & Blacky. On the reserve a cracking male Black Red, Redwing plus a Grey Wag heard calling, but not seen, first thing. What is going on in the Peregrine department at the moment is unclear. In recent days a female with "browny bits" on it has been reported - this is either an immature bird or, more likely, a hybrid falconers escapee. The adult male Peregrine is seen regularly but is unable to chase this interloper away. The adult female Peregrine is only being seen on rare occasions which leads me to one of either two conclusions. Is she incubating sat out of sight on the green crane or has this alien chased her off ? What would help is that if any of you readers out there have any decent photos of any of the birds that would allow close study of plumage details please could you e.mail them to landguardbo@yahoo.co.uk so we can try to work out what exactly is going on.