PEREGRINE: awesome predator puts on a powerful display

FAST and ferocious, the peregrine falcon is in a class of its own when it comes to hunting other birds.

During a stoop, when it folds its scythe-like wings and plummets out of the sky, it can reach speeds of up to 200mph.

If it hits its prey cleanly the outcome is usually instant death, courtesy of its rapier talons.

Peregrines inhabit secluded areas and can be found in hilly ranges, quiet moorland, or along sea cliffs.

Prey usually comprises large birds such as pigeons, grouse, or crows but small mammals are also taken.

I watched a captive peregrine being worked by a falconer at a falconry display last year and its power and grace were awesome.

It was also interesting to observe other birds fleeing from nearby trees as the peregrine took to the air.

The threat it posed was obviously recognisable to them.

Short, rapid wingbeats were employed as the display peregrine drove itself into the sky.

Then it turned and dropped like a stone, shooting across a field to hit the lure wheeled on a string by the falconer.

For such a magnificent bird, the peregrine has had a particularly tough time over the last 60 years.

It was even shot on sight during the Second World War in case it brought down carrier pigeons.

Many have been killed by gamekeepers while pesticides absorbed in the food chain were long blamed for making egg shells too thin for the young inside to survive.

But conservation efforts have paid off and the UK population of peregrine falcons is now thought to number around 1,300 pairs.

Recently, however, the RSPB sounded the alarm over another traditional enemy of the peregrine - the pigeon fancier.

A poisoning campaign is apparently being waged by disgruntled fanciers who mistakenly blame the predators for high mortality rates among their birds.

The RSPB says it has taken more than three decades for peregrines to recover from the worst effects of accidental poisoning by pesticides.

It would therefore be "tragic" if conservation success was reversed by deliberate poisoning.

"So far this year we have received at least nine reports of peregrine falcons being poisoned or suspected poisoned bait being laid," revealed Graham Elliott, head of the RSPB's investigations unit.

"At half a dozen locations, we think pigeon fanciers have left tethered pigeons doused in poison close to peregrine nests in the hope that the adults are attracted by their distress and prey on them."

You can't help feeling sorry for the pigeons themselves - sacrificed in such a shoddy way by people who profess to admire them.

Humans, it seems, can still stoop faster and lower than a peregrine.