Today licensed field workers visited two ground nesting Peregrine nests, in both instances each site was known to contain 4 healthy chicks, up until today that is!.
Site 1, previously photographed on United Utilities property, the second Site 3 located on a private and keepered Estate.
The iconic image of four large and almost fledged young in their ground nest on the UU estates shows how many young, when persecution is not an issue, are capable of being produced. Thanks to the publicity generated by this web site, all four chicks this season should be on the wing in the next day or so. As readers of our new web site will already know, this particular pair of peregrines (site 1 UU), has only fledged a single chick each season for the last four seasons. We feel that in our first season of operating our Raptor Politics site, giving publicity to endemic persecution of protected raptors throughout the Forest of Bowland, the site was well worth its development and has clearly highlighted the contrasting productivity of nesting sites established on Private Sporting Estates as apposed to sites located on moorland owned by United Utilities Plc.
In stark contrast, anyone who has been following the development of site 3, which only two weeks ago contained four chicks will see from our new images posted today*, two chicks have already disappeared from the nest.
We intend to publish a more detailed account of what has been going on during the last two weeks in the Forest of Bowland. In particular, we hope to bring you information of illegal activity on the private estates leading undoubtedly to the disappearance of the two chicks from site 3 and the way the sites security could have been compromised by ringing the original 4 chicks the nest once contained.
Please continue to watch this space!
* photos to follow shortly.
