The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Bob Sheppard and I collected all the prey remains at St Wulfram’s Church, Grantham on 8th September, prior to a sponsored abseil event organised at the church. As all prey remains were collected on 29th May, so the following are thought to have been taken by the breeding Peregrines during June to August.

Of particular interest is another Quail. This one was whole (with both legs intact!), so is a second bird to the previous record when a local birdwatcher collected a Quail leg with a Belgian ring, which he saw fall to the base of the tower .

Common Tern 3 (1 whole adult; 1 adult wing and 1 juvenile head)
Black-headed gull 1
Jackdaw 4
Moorhen 1
Quail - 1 whole (2nd quail for the site!)
Green woodpecker 1
Swift 2
Starling 3
House sparrow 1
Blackbird 12
Golden plover 1
Feral pigeon 20 heads
Feral pigeon 29 paired wings/wing bones
Woodpigeon 1

Thanks to Ed Drewitt at Bristol Zoo for the smelly task of going through the items.

It's perhaps surprising that they seem to have taken so many Blackbirds, yet so few Starlings. There are plenty of Starlings in Grantham, but not that many Balckbirds (not now anyway!)

Alan

Was the Knot/Dotterel leg ever confirmed?

Andrew

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Andrew Chick
Website: http://www.forktail.co.uk/

Andrew,

The legs of Dotterel and Knot are almost identical, which is a problem when there is only a leg to go on ! There was the remains of red feathering on the thigh, which points to a summer plumaged Knot.

Alan

Alan,
Is there any way the above and previous list of prey items could be forwarded to the Pigeon fancying/racing fraternity? It may help to dispel the myth that "their" birds are the only target!
Stuart

I hardly think they're going to be jumping for joy when the numbers of Columbia livia exceeds the total of all other species put together in this small sample!

John

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Lincolnshire Birds https://www.flickr.com/photos/120340949 ... 8078912016
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Contact: recorder_north@lincsbirdclub.co.uk

Stuart, if such a myth exists, which I have some doubts, then the list would only add to the fact that peregrines eat far more species than "most people, including pigeon fanciers" thought, not good news for any birds on the list. As John Clarkson implies, it is of no comfort to know that columbia livia is it's "main" course. Also peregrines do not check to see if columbia livia are wearing racing rings first.

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http://birdmanbirds.blogspot.com/

But I would assume that all racing pigeons have been ringed, even Peregrines do not eat those, would they not be seen when going through the left overs ?
Mike Surr

It would be interesting to know whether any Racing Pigeon rings were found, or perhaps that bit of info was kept hush.

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http://birdmanbirds.blogspot.com/

We did find several racing pigeon rings. Some of these were found loose, (i.e. not still on a leg bone) in the roof gutters. As these plastic rings are non-biodegradable these may have been there for some time.

Alan

The BB paper 'Diet and prey selection of urban-dwelling Peregrine Falcons in southwest England' can be downloaded from http://p.behr.free.fr/biblio/peregrinesBB.pdf

Amazing to think they are hunting Quail at night over Grantham town centre.....

Alex

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Dr Alexander C. Lees
Lecturer in tropical ecology
Manchester Metropolitan University

Lab Associate
Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
Cornell University

http://www.freewebs.com/alexlees/index.htm
@Alexander_Lees