Peregrines on York Minster

They occasionally preened and changed position, ruffled their feathers then settled back, seemingly in no great rush to ‘get up’ this morning. They are such skilled hunters and with such an abundance of pigeon prey then can afford to take it easy sometimes. But a few minutes later the male was off flying overhead. This is when peregrines are at their best, their pointed wings giving them a beautiful aerodynamic shape. He disappeared from view, but was back a few minutes later, landing on the bell tower, much closer to where I was sitting.

The female spotted him and flew over to join him. Shortly after, I noticed pigeon feathers floating down from above her. At this point I couldn’t see the male so I walked back to get a better view and spotted him higher up on a gargoyle. He had obviously stashed a pigeon there possibly the day before and was now finishing it off. But it didn’t satisfy his appetite. He was still hungry and was eyeing up pigeons that were flying underneath him. I was surprised how close the pigeons were landing to the female.



The pigeons seemed to know instinctively that peregrines are only a threat to them when they are airborne. They were quite at ease as they sat only a few metres away from their main predator on a ledge. But the temptation was too much for the male. The fluttering pigeons below him were now in his sights, his head was fixed in their direction and he started flapping his wings to spook the pigeons off the minster. It was a new one on me. I have never seen a peregrine using this sort of tactic before. But, I have seen them flushing prey on the wing on previous occasions.

Yet, his tactic worked. The pigeons took fright and set off. The peregrine launched himself off the gargoyle and into the air and performed a spectacular stoop. The five pigeons plummeted to the ground almost tumbling and twisting through the air swapping positions to confuse the peregrine as it dropped down behind them at full throttle.

As the pigeons got closer to the ground they pulled up over the small tree above my head. I could hear the wind rushing through the pigeons’ wings. The peregrine pulled out of his stoop like a well-honed fighter. Yet this time he missed. I wanted to see what else the city centre could offer and headed off to Museum Gardens which is a great little green space in the heart of the city. But I was alarmed at how many grey squirrels there were. Grey squirrels are not native to the UK. I understand that they have fluffy tails and some people think they are cute but they are not good news for song birds and I am not a fan of theirs. I did however find some bird life. A volery of long tailed tits were working their way along the trees. They were joined by a few great tits and blue tits too.

Next, I spied some lovely old yew trees. These are always worth inspecting more closely for birdlife. Sure enough, I found black birds, song and mistle thrushes and redwings feeding on the berries. Then I spotted something a bit more special: a pair of gold crests collecting insects. Their quiet contact call gave them away. I had been in York for 7 hours by now and as dusk started to fall I headed to Parliament Street where I have seen pied wagtails gather in their hundreds. They like to roost communally and are drawn to the city because it is warmer, but they disperse during the day to feed. I walked up and down the street, which was bustling with shoppers, only hearing the odd one calling.

By 4pm I was beginning to get disappointed that there were so few. I turned to head back to my car when I heard the sound of some more. A flock of more than 20 flew on to the roof of Marks and Spencers and before long second and then a third large flock joined them. Before long there were more than 200 pied wagtails. But I noticed that they were nervous. They were flitting from one rooftop to the next, calling to one another. Suddenly a sparrow hawk appeared from nowhere and started to chase them. There was chaos in the sky as wagtails flew and swerved in all directions, some even daring to chase the hawk away. The sparrow hawk retreated and the wagtails settled back down onto the roof of Marks and Spencers. But before long the hawk was back. It flew flat out across the facia of the Halifax bank building just inches away from the wall. As it flipped up over the roof top a clouds of pied wagtails took to the air. The hawk missed again, but on the third fly-by it was successful and plucked a wagtail out of the air with its sharp talons.

The wagtails were very flighty after this aerial assault and flew around frantically, landing on different roof tops before settling on top of Barclays bank. Then when they thought the danger had passed they swooped down into the London Plane trees that line this popular shopping street. The noise of all the birds was incredible yet not one of the hundreds of people in the street below even looked up! I was surrounded by folk and felt like shouting out, ‘Wow did you see that!’ but thought better of it. They had missed this incredible drama in the sky taking place right above their heads in the centre of York.

The peregrines on York Minster are now nesting. I saw the male hunt a pigeon then perch on this gargoyle to prepare it for the female.