A few other friends joined me in this pursuit and it has now grown into a continuing and on-going study, resulting in a number of scientific papers, chiefly on the racing pigeon/Peregrine interaction. It was a long time before I found my next ring but thereafter the results were outstanding and quite phenomenal. Then, a thought hit me, what if I searched at these sites with a metal detector? It was getting close to the Peregrine nesting season, so I had to leave it until the following autumn/winter, when they had finished breeding, before I searched again, this time armed with a cheap metal detector. I visited another Peregrine site the following day and found a Dutch ring. I squeezed some more, and, incredibly enough, out popped a Danish ring! It gets better, believe me… I climbed back down and started squeezing through the pellets, thinking that I might be lucky enough to find a bird ring inside, and was quite amazed when a British ring popped out. I looked down to the grass bank beneath and the usual sight of Peregrine activity greeted me -feathers of previous kills, bleached bones of birds long past, and quite a few pellets (Peregrines, like other birds of prey and owls, regurgitate bones and other indigestible material in pellets). Whilst up there I noticed that this ledge was a favoured winter roost site of Peregrine Falcons, and at some time in its very long history had been used for nesting by Peregrines as well. It was quite a steep climb to the nest which was tucked under a small overhang and still in the process of being built. I was searching for a Raven's nest by scanning the cliffs above the towering ancient glacier of this formidable mountain monument, and soon spotted the mass of sticks and heavy green stains where the nest was situated. As a bird ringer and a keen nest recorder, finding and monitoring nests for BTO’s Nest Record Scheme, I was pleased to find the winter was on its knees, and the long-awaited spring promising some action once again. It all started at Craig Cerrig Gleisiad in the Brecon Beacons on the 3rd of March 1997.
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