In the spring of 2014 i was privileged to be asked to photograph the ringing of three chicks from the Famous Exeter Peregrines nesting in St michaels church Spire.

It took about an hour for three dedicated diligent naturalists to carefully take out the chicks from a purpose made nest box to ring, weigh and measure them. The recorded information and ringing is very important for the birds protection and preservation of their lifestyle. These once endangered species need all the help they can get to keep them alive in the modern industrial world and unscrupulous egg/trophy collectors.

Within a couple of months these chicks, the size of chickens at the moment, will be joining their parents and become fastest living creature on our planet.

Foot note.

The last Photo shows two unfortunate dead chicks from the same nest. The first larger one was found in an indstutrial chimney with a wire net on the top in Halifax. He must have got in and couldn’t escape. the second smaller one is one of the chicks pictured here and was found dead locally with a broken wing, So even though they rule the skys and have no natural predators (except humans) they are still fragile creatures in the wrong environment.