Holy hawks
The cathedral killers are back. Every good luck to them. I don't mind if they skim the cream off the local bird population: that is what happens in nature, bred with tooth and claw.
To see a peregrine with a limp dove in her foot is like seeing a whale swallow a mouthful of 500 sardines, or watching a satisfied guest at your table chewing the leg off a lamb.
Few of us think about the bio-diversity of the rain forests flattened decades ago as we brew our morning cuppa. Tea plantations were killers to hosts of wildlife. As for rubber, soya, bio fuels and mahogany furniture, bricks and mortar...well that's enough of that.
A friend called the peregrines 'those holy hawks' the other day, wondering if they were responsible for getting rid of the mistle thrushes in his garden. I don't think that is one of the species found at the base of the spire when winter receipts were cleared there.
Plenty of woodcock, blackbirds, feral pigeons, starlings, and teal, the odd redshank and other wading birds from the harbour.
What I say, for what it's worth, is let them eat cake if they want to. They are top of the food chain. Ernest Hemingway was perhaps the last man to kill a lion outside those semi-zoo confines still open to big game hunters. Today everyone is far more interested to see them living naturally and killing doe-eyed deer for a living and have accepted red teeth and claws.
Every day the Chichester cathedral peregrines provide a spectacle of some sort for us all. Their fourth egg of this year was laid a fortnight ago, so now the falcon, otherwise known as mum, should be sitting it out in her little wooden box.
Dad the tiercel; so called because he is a third smaller than her, will be edging in to do his bit in the nestbox, so allowing her a few moments of fresh air and freedom.
I watched the pair playing just after the last egg was laid. In human terms I was reminded of the amazing grace of those Russian fighter jet pilots who performed with incredible accuracy at air shows – until one day they touched and it all ended in flames, both men parachuting safely with millimetres to spare.
Our display team circled the spire like two bolas thrown in pursuit of prey. Then they flew to each other and touched, and there may have been flames in their minds.
Last week photographer David Shaw and his wife actually caught the peregrine pair mating in the mid air. The gulls and crows that wing the midway air seem so much more gross in comparison. They have good and useful wings, even elegant like the finest Slingsby gliders, but they do not have the flashing ceremonial swords that peregrines have for wings. When they clash, even in fun you are reminded of the Romanoffs and the Capulets.
A buzzard sometimes crosses the territory of the killers. Often this little eagle is escorted off the premises and takes it all in good humour, not bothering to remember the rules on air space at his next visit.
It happened again last week. The tiercel blood was up however. He seemed to say: 'I warned you' as he rose rapidly above the old earth-worm and rabbit catcher. The buzzard did not seem to see him coming. Maybe he was just looking, at the streets and Bishop's Palace gardens, the shops and their human trade, the midday bus and the queue for the postal order.
He did not see the meteorite coming perpendicularly down the sky until it hit him. Several of his feathers came out. Killers do not have kind hearts and coronets, even if they do live at the cathedral.
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Weather for Chichester
Monday 13 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 3 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: North west
