The Tiercel


Perched on a stone cherub above a bone-yard of birds with his brutal beak, hangman’s hood, he was hardly angelic; only the white eye-lid flickering, this moist, nictitating membrane briefly blotting out the black eye.


Then hooked on the sky, arching for the stoop, with fierce, golden talons, and eerie piercing cry,


“Kek-Kek! Kek-Kek!!” The Falcon


Yet, watching a chick through a scope, the female falcon, flapping and hopping on bone ledge, playing with the carcass of a pigeon as a kitten, or puppy, would play with a toy – was almost comical.


Yet she soon would stoop from the sun, with an adult’s precision, a perfect, peregrine incision – slicing in the sky.


N.B. I am a volunteer for the RSPB. A family of peregrine falcons, two adults and three chicks, was nesting in Cardiff City Hall clock tower. The Tiercel is the name given to a male peregrine falcon. Tiercel is French for third. The male peregrine is a third smaller than the female, which is called a Falcon.


The stoop is the dive begun by a peregrine when hunting prey. The peregrine is the fastest bird in the world. The stoop has been timed at well over 100mph.


MARC HARRIS 13


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