Local Peregrine's

Rochdale Town Hall - 2.7.18

Once again Peregrine Falcon's have been successful in rearing three young on Rochdale Town Hall which I've been following with interest over the internet, as the juveniles had left the nest platform about five days previous exploring other parts of the building I thought now's the time too make my way down to the town centre and try and get some flight images.

It's another sunny morning and I locate one juvenile is sitting high up on the park side of the building, it's calling continuously presumably for the parent bird to deliver the next meal, but the parent is having non of it preferring just to site and watch.

Now mid-morning and after two hours on site the adult bird takes to the air souring higher and higher eventually drifting out of sight, the juvenile still calling takes off and heads off in the direction of the parent bird, and that was the last action of my visit, but there's always another day, maybe tomorrow.

Rochdale Town Hall a fine example of gothic architecture that stands out amongst its surroundings in the town, quite easy to overlook are a number of interesting features including....

Coat of arms of Edmund Crouchback Earl of Lancaster.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Crouchback

Historic coat of arms of the Borough of Rochdale.........."Sable on an escutcheon within an orle of eight martlets argent a woolpack within a wreath of laurel proper".....I've no idea either !

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol5/pp187-201

Peregrine Falcon....(adult male)

Content just to sit for up to an hour high above the large clock on the main tower and only just visible with the naked eye, the image is cropped but it still amazingly retains some image quality to post in the blog.

So there I am waiting for the opportunity of Peregrine flight shots and from my left what I initially though was a drone a model aircraft appears and glides past the town hall clock tower in the middle of Rochdale, it certainly got the attention of a juveniles Peregrine as it promptly took off in pursuit of what it must have though was a easy meal.

The image is a little blurred as it was totally unexpected, I presume someone was flying the model aircraft from the elevated park at the rear of the town hall.

Peregrine Falcon in hot pursuit !