The Peregrine Detective.

When I first visited the Piece Hall to photograph and watch the peregrines I noticed that both were ringed but the male had a distinctive orange/red band on the left leg. I thought that if I could get a clear shot of the ring I could use the internet to try and find out where he was ringed and hopefully a little of his history.

On a subsequent visit the male was sitting high on the spire preening in the evening sunshine and on a couple of the pictures I took the leg ring was much more visible. At home on the computer I was able to really zoom in and I could make out the letters ZS.

I began searching on Google for pages about peregrine ringing and the colours used and it threw up a link to the Derbyshire cathedral peregrines who use this colour for peregrines hatched on the cathedral. I then searched Facebook for a Derbyshire birders page and made contact with one of the members Daniel Martin who offered to help. I sent Daniel the images above and he said he'd get back to me if he found anything out.

Daniel got back to me a few days later to say he had contacted Ed Drewitt a Peregrine expert and he was in touch with Ben Dolan who had ringed the falcon but who was currently out of the country! So my wait continued.

Until earlier this week when Daniel passed on a message from Ben to say he had ringed the bird back in 2014 in Hanley, Stoke on Trent!!!!

But even better than that, Ben also had some pictures of him being ringed and with his siblings.

So from this fluffy ball to the magnificent predator we can see cruising over Halifax.

A huge thank you to both Daniel and Ben for filling in the blanks and to Ed Drewiit for pointing Daniel to Ben.. If you want to come to Halifax and see ZS in his new home I will be happy to buy you both some beers. Hopefully soon we will have our own peregrine chick's to watch, and who knows where they may end up.