Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes

Now there is concern that nests in remote areas may have been tampered with. Not overtly, but covertly, in ways that would be difficult to detect.

There is no hard evidence yet but suspicions range from keeping the parent birds off the eggs in wet weather by being too close to the nest, to abseiling down to cliff nesters and pricking the eggs.

So who is against the peregrine and why? There has not been a time for 200 years that these masters of the skies have been so common as now.

Racing pigeons are taken by peregrines but the predation of these birds is not high. Forty per cent of racing pigeons, in the past decade, do not make it home, in some areas.

Fanciers, however, do not blame the peregrine. Many of their birds are simply getting lost. The birds are nowadays more easily losing their way and the worry is that mobile radios are somehow confusing the navigation systems in the pigeons' brains.

The spread of mobiles has coincided with pigeon losses. Pigeons race in tight flocks and in crossing through a peregrine territory would result in the loss of only one bird in a flock of 50 pigeons.

Peregrines tend to hunt loners and if racing pigeons are appearing in the eyries, it is 10 to one an already lost bird has been taken out, a bird that was no longer of any use to its owner.

In the First World War, homing pigeons were used as messengers from the battle front and from ships and aeroplanes, so it was vital that they were as safe as possible. Peregrines were destroyed as a result as much as possible.

By 1954, the last peregrine in Sussex nested on Beachy Head, the traditional eyrie for years as shown here in Philip Rickman's painting of 1936.

Today they nest on buildings and quarries and have become a joy to watch in the skies, much as buzzards have at last become common enough in Sussex with about 60-plus pairs.

Peregrines are mainly feeding on wading birds and gulls in winter, also starlings, magpies, jackdaws, wood pigeons, collared doves. They are not harmful to the environment and should be encouraged, while destruction of eggs, young or adults can lead to very heavy fines.