A close encounter with a Peregrine.

I had an amazing close encounter with a juvenile Peregrine last Thursday. Whilst driving back from Denbigh to Mold I spotted a juvenile Petegrine sat in the road. Stopping ant turning around as soon as I could I managed, with the help of local photographer Andy Davis & another motorist who'd stooped, to catch it. It could fly short distances but was very thin & weak with no obvious injuries. It was ringed with a BTO metal ring and also flour ringed. Phoning Rachel Taylor of the BTO & SCAN ringing group for advice she arranged to meet me at Conwy RSPB and take it back to her place where it would be collected by the N Wales Raptor rehabilitation & hopefully released.

Apparantely it's quite common for juvenile Peregrines to become disorientated and weakened in their early months after fledging. What is unusual was that this particular bird had been ringed about 40 km away. This is a long way for a juvenile bird to travel from its natal site. Young birds generally stay fairly close to where they were raised so either this bird is very adventurous or something untoward has happened. 

Photo above courtesy of Andy Davis.

Hopefully this youngster will make a full recovery and will live to grace our skies.

Update March 2016
Note:This bird was rescued the day I was going on holiday. My car was in for a service and  I was in a courtesy car with no pens or paper. Although I knew I was pushing it for time I rang Rachel and took it across to Conwy before rushing home, collecting my car and going to the airport. I'd assumed the re-hab people would report it and I certainly knew where and when it had been ringed and that the ringer had been informed when I wrote this blog post. The comment from the MRG Chairman on their website about the finder (me) or BTO Wales not bothering to report the bird is inaccurate and rather petty.