Page:The peregrine falcon at the eyrie (IA cu31924084757206).pdf/31

 Rh shutter on the Falcon. Shortly after my last exposure the light grew very bad and heavy showers fell. About 6.30 p.m. he began whimpering and looking up skywards. Again, shortly before 7 p.m., when the clouds broke and the setting sun began to stream in through the front of the shed, he looked up and yelped impatiently at the Falcon soaring overhead. He waited a few minutes and then got off the young carefully and flew away. Then I did a very foolish thing. As the sun was coming in through a large gap



to the left, which only had a layer of net over it, and so was brilliantly illuminating the inside of the shed, I thoughtlessly took advantage of the Tiercel's absence to pin a piece of mackintosh over the gap, only to find the Falcon standing on B, which was six feet off. She was staring at me in alarm, and although I immediately "froze" and half-closed my eyes, the mischief was done, and after jerking her head in my direction three or four times, she flew off, screaming the alarm. There was a good deal of calling