How lucky can a bird photographer get.  My falconer friend Paddy Thompson called this morning to see if I would like to go up to the rooftop of the Renaissance tower and take pictures of the Peregrines.  Once on the rooftop you enter an area with a metal fence enclosing AC units that prevents you from falling 24 floors to the ground but allows climbing up to see over the edge and observe the ledge where the birds have established their nest.
Here is the female screeching at us for intruding into her space.

Paddy says this is the same female that comes each year as identified by the leg band.

After we continued to stare at her she effortlessly launched into a series of aerial maneuvers that included dive bombs directed at me as I clung to the fence.  I would like to make the story more dramatic and say she came close to my head but can’t provide photographic proof or scars on my bald head. Here she is landing again on the nearby ledge.

The pair have hatched 4 young falcons that are now starting to grow their wing feathers.  Paddy says they are late this year and will be another few weeks before they fledge.

Evidence of previous meals litters the nest area.

The male falcon was a long way off so this picture is quite blurry but you can see a catch trailing behind as he cruises around, not willing to come to the nest with us close by.

Thanks again Paddy for such an unusual opportunity to see these truly unbelievably agile, fast, wild creatures up close and personal. I salute their prowess as the ultimate aerial hunter.