The Peregrine Falcon is one of our most impressive birds of prey. Its numbers have recovered in recent years since the abolition of certain pesticides. It usually is a bird of wild places but it habitually will use the same nest location for many years. Some of these nest sites can be in unusual places even close to human habitiation. One such nest site can be found at the Falls of Clyde. This area is part of a Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) reserve, just up river from the village of New Lanark, a World Heritage Site. The Peregrines have nested in the gorge of the upper River Clyde for several years now. Each year the SWT mounts a round the clock surveilance and protection scheme whilst the birds are nesting.
There are images here taken in 2006 when the pair raised four chicks and in 2008 when they raised three. Another set of images were taken in 2009 when the birds had again nested in the gorge. These images are of a male bird which has just swapped over at the nest with the female; it is having a preen before going hunting. The 2009 season proved to be a difficult year for the birds. Only one egg from three laid hatched and was very late. The photographs of the one downy chick on 6th June contrast with fully fledged and flying birds on 14th June a couple of years previously. In 2010 the pair raised four chicks - but that is too long and complicated a story to descrbe here.