Louth's nesting peregrines yield research data for academics

On Look North last night Peter mentioned about  the female Peregrine at Lincoln Cathedral it's been seen flying around (pic by Colin J Lea) and has been reported to be bonding with the male.  The female that nested there for fifteen years was found dead last week after apparently falling from the sky. He said, keep your eyes open if your near the cathedral.  

Footage from the LBC webcam at the peregrine nesting site in Louth has provided information for a scientific paper which is published today.

Scientists compared the prey of city-breeding peregrines with their rural counterparts, including those at St James Church, to establish whether there had been any feeding changes during covid lockdown between the years 2020 and 2022.

It seems that there was little change in rural locations, but, in cities, the falcons' partly switched from feral pigeons to starlings and ring-necked parakeets.

The authors of the paper attribute this to a decline in the pigeon populations of cities because there were fewer people about to feed them scraps.

The paper, which is published in the journal People and Nature, can be read in full at:
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/pan3.10445