Monday 3 December 2012

Peregrines are on the move - watch out for who's who

At this time of the year, Peregrines are on the move. Young birds hatched earlier in the year will be travelling around the UK, sometimes short distances, perhaps only a radius of 50 miles; others will be moving much further, up to 120 miles or more. 

Urban sites with wintering Peregrines may consist of not just local birds, but falcons from further afield. Of course, they look the same, but with some careful observations of age, sex, and other plumage markings, you may be able to tell the individuals apart. A city centre roost may have four or five individual Peregrines using the site, even though only one or two are seen at any one time. 

Many urban Peregrines are now marked with colour rings on their legs under a Schedule 1 Licence - these allow the birds to be identified from a distance. Others, particularly those ringed in quarries, may only sport a unique, BTO metal ring (which the colour-ringed birds will also have). 

Either way, the rings can tell us a lot about individual Peregrines, from where they have travelled from, to how old they are.  When spotting Peregrines, keep an eye or for their legs and any rings. With a good scope or camera, the colour rings can be read. The metal rings require powerful lenses, but if a bird is close enough, they can sometimes be read too. 

Report any rings and their codes to ring.ac and myself! The colour rings I use in the Bristol and Bath region are light blue with black letters. 

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