This was such a wonderful experience! It was early one morning. I was strolling along the top of a cliff on North Head in Manly, and stopped to film some birds swooping around the cliff and the sea far below. To my surprise and delight, a Peregrine Falcon landed a few metres away and started calling.

You can see and hear the moment, at about 45 seconds into this video, when the falcon starts calling and the camera swings round to find it:

I don’t know if the birds swooping around the cliffs were Peregrine Falcons too. I suspect they were, as I heard their call, which came from a section of the cliff face that’s out of sight behind an outcrop. I’d been watching the birds for a while when one dropped in so suddenly.

The falcon stayed where it was, perched on a branch at the edge of the cliff, for a long time — at least 15 minutes. It was I who left in the end, not the bird.

In the middle of a feather shuffle:

In the next video, the bird calls a few times (little chirps at the beginning; longer squeals at time stamp 1:02; squeals, hiccoughs, and chirps at 2:03; more at 2:35). It spends most of its time preening its feathers, which do seem to be in a bit of a state. Perhaps it’s a juvenile.

At about 50 seconds into the video, the view moves off the falcon to take in the ocean and the cliffs, but the bird calls attention back to itself quite soon.

At time stamp 2:16, both the falcon and I hear another bird calling overhead. The view wanders up into the sky to spot the other bird. Towards the end of the video, at 2:55, an aeroplane passes overhead and the bird quints up at it.

Although the falcon checked me out several times, it wasn’t in the least bit worried about me:

Common name: Peregrine Falcon
Scientific name: Falco peregrinus
Approximate length: 35-50 cm; wing span 85-100 cm
Date spotted: 7 May 2024 (autumn)
Location: Fairfax Track, North Head, Manly, New South Wales, Australia: 33°49’16.9″S 151°18’01.7″E