So I was eating my lunch looking out of the window when a flock of about twenty or thirty corvids were flying about in a excitable manner which is unusual at this time of the year when they are generally paired up and attending to their own business. A pair of Buzzards were also flying around in an agitated fashion. Obviously something was up!
I grabbed my camera and went out to see the object of their aggravation was a a big female peregrine ,circling with fluttering wings and calling in a high pitched excited yickering. Obviously the peregrine was interested in something below it in the field opposite, and it then stooped. Just as it seemed as if it was going to crash into the ground it miraculously put on the brakes and landed.
Thwarted, it had circled around but regained its nerve and decided it was too good to leave & pounced again to deliver it's coup de grâce or retrieve its prize. Anyhow I took these pic's at 130 X at a range of about 120 metres and it was not possible to ID the victim without disturbing the peregrine.
This was confusing as there had been no obvious victim. It just sat there for a minute or two looking around as if expecting trouble and then feathers started flying...
I suspect it had taken out its victim as is often the case if they do not manage to "bind to" (grab hold of), their prey. The victim crashes to earth, possibly still alive but mortally wounded. At that time all hell had broke loose among the locals and it had lost its nerve.
