I haven't been able to get to the Peregrine territory much this last week because of family commitments but this morning I spent almost 4 hours there and for most of the time I had one or two young Peregrines in front of my lens. The youngsters are 63 days old today…… that's 9 weeks of course.  Quite oddly the adults didn't come in to feed their youngsters  while I was there which was just bad luck (for me).  They must have been fed before I arrived. I had been worried because on my previous visits recently  I hadn't seen all three youngsters together and I was a tad concerned that one of the female's had succumbed. Mortality rates in young Peregrines are known to be high especially when they are still too young  to feed themselves.

I can tell the difference between the young male and his siblings. It's very easy when they are together but when just one is in front of you it's not quite so easy. Firstly, the young tercel (that's the male) came on to the branch and I could confirm that he was OK, that was good news.  Then after a short while, one of the female's flew in, so now I knew that there were  two. I was very thrilled that while this female was in front of me, another female came in and landed on a perch beneath. It was great to confirm the presence and safety of all three young birds!   I made a point of photographing the heads of both the young male and one of the females because you can clearly see that there is a difference in beak size and shape as well as different markings on the head.

 

The head of the male is more rounded and the beak is slightly shorter. Compare the markings on the head on the picture of a young female below.

 

This is one of the females flying in to "that favourite perch". I tried very hard to get some in flight shots today but it didn't really happen as much as I would have liked.

As far as behaviour is concerned now, the youngsters spend a lot of their time just sitting around but always looking very alert. From time to time they leave the perch and fly around obviously honing their flying skills. They are not quite as vocal as they were last week but from time to time they will call to each other. At the first sight of an adult they will call and scream in a very excited way.