The Peregrines of Ealing Hospital

Whenever I start a new book, I always gravitate towards the open spaces and the likely wildlife I might encounter. To my delight, Ealing is bursting with it, from the Peregrines that my daughter and I visited back in February to even Beavers, which will appear in a later newsletter for sure. They are nocturnal, so I’ll need to wait until the days are longer when they might be tempted to venture out at dusk. Ealing has a very active local volunteer army, all expertly corralled by a lovely chap called Sean from the Ealing Wildlife Group.

When I visited the wonderful Wharncliffe Viaduct back in January (and featured in my New Year newsletter), I didn’t know at the time that the local pair of Peregrines hunt across Brent Meadow from its ramparts. Easy to get to, its rather a nice trip. Starting from Boston Manor Tube Station, we followed the Brent River and Canal all the way to the hospital.

Map courtesy of Open Street Maps - Boston Manor is bottom right and the hospital top left. It only takes about half an hour to reach the hospital and flat all the way.

Already an impressive sight, how wonderful to discover that Peregrines love to hunt from it.

Most of their diet consists of pigeon and parrot.

They have been resident on the hospital for about 4 years now and have bred successfully for the past two years. The Ealing Wildlife Group have built them a home of the north side of the building and even put in a webcam for everyone to watch.

Here they are seen together and apparently, so Sean tells me, part of the bonding ritual consists of a lot of head bobbing. The female is bigger than the male, with the male seeming the most submissive.

The first egg was laid in late March last year, so not long to go this year to wait and see if they again successful.

I intend to follow the work of the Ealing Wildlife Group as my book develops and I will bring you further updates as the year progresses. I particularly look forward to bringing you the ringing of the chicks legs (lets hope they are successful) and also my visits to meet The Beavers. They also promise me Hobby’s, which I have never seen before, Little Owls and even Door Mice.