Young peregrines

 I have been observing No Mow May. Partly to help the insects etc and partly to do with the wet weather,

Today was nice and dry and warm so I spent the morning mowing the lawns. I cannot say that I have noticed a lot of insects this month, again the weather probably played its part. I saw something on the television about recording any insects on your car number plate. I remember doing something similar before in the 1980's?

As soon as I had cut one patch of grass a male blackbird flew down on to the lawn and started looking for worms. I have not seen them do this when the grass was long.

After lunch I decided to go to York Minster and try to see the young peregrines. You can follow their progress on Twitter @YorkPeregrines. York was very busy., the sunny weather and the bank holiday had brought the crowds out.

I managed to find a spot away from other people, but still with a view of the balcony.

this is the balcony on which there is a tray for the peregrines to nest on. There are four young birds.

The two adult birds were sat on various part of the North Tower.

I think that it was the female who flew in with some prey. After approaching the balcony she flew off and landed on a different roof.

she then flew back to the tower and landed on a grotesque and started plucking her kill.

the other adult bird landed on the balcony edge/and was looking up at a pair of peregrines fly over.

once the kill was plucked the adult took it to the balcony and dropped it, and then flew off. One day I will get a decent flight picture.

the four young birds then ate what had been dropped for them.

one of the youngsters kept looking out from the balcony/

One of the adults, again I think that it was the female came back with another kill and landed on the highest grotesque, where she started to pluck her kill. Lots of feathers were flying about.

I left after a couple of hours but will return soon as the young will be flying soon.