Frank incensed!

Last year, I received many passionate emails from around the world about Peregrine Falcons. I was somewhat upset by the depth of feeling surrounding this subject but, like all good diarists, I made a note to tell you all about it this year.

The Peregrine Falcon is a highly specialised feeder, concentrating almost entirely on birds, favouring pigeons (wild, feral and homing) and gamebirds. Prey is taken according to availability. In some regions they will feed on lots of crows or seabirds, but pigeons equally will be taken according to their availability.

Not surprisingly, a group of people who dislike peregrines are pigeon-fanciers and racing pigeon owners who say their birds are destroyed by peregrines. They have a point too but studies show that more pigeons fail to return home because they stray or collide with cables or tall buildings. During World War Two however, the government ordered a cull of peregrines in order to protect carrier-pigeons so someone must have been worried.

Although I'm just a quarryman, it seems a little bit unsympathetic, some sixty years on, to wish the same fate on a bird who is only doing what is natural to it. There have been suggestions about changing the pigeon racing season (so that it doesn’t coincide with the peregrine breeding season) and about moving some of the pigeon racing routes away from peregrine breeding areas. So far, the suggestions haven’t been welcomed by the pigeon breeding fraternity. Let's hope a solution can be found.

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