(A difficult shot from quite a distance.)

I witnessed something really interesting today. I had sat in the hide for an hour or so, hoping to see the Peregrines continuing their breeding activity but at the moment that seems to be a little bit uncertain – to say the least. Then I heard the excited calling of a Kestrel, these last few visits I have seen them on an old Ravens nest and I am sure they are going to breed, or attempt to breed there. I immediately managed to get my camera on to the ledge there. I was pretty sure that it was going to be the male – I have seen both sexes there recently – but no, it was the female. It was carrying a lizard in its beak and it was bobbing up and down, calling loudly. Odd that it had flown to the nest ledge with prey because I would have expected the male to be displaying and delivering prey. It's always massively difficult to anticipate behaviour as usual. What was just as interesting was that prior to the noisy excitement from the Kestrels, I hadn't seen a Peregrine but it seemed that the presence of the smaller falcon had attracted it's attention and it then flew in to the nest ledge. It stood there motionless and the word forlorn crossed my mind. There is still no sign of the tercel and I haven't seen him since last Wednesday which is probably why there seems to be a halt in breeding activity. A big disappointment frankly.