Wednesday 27 August 2008

In Memoriam

Peregrine - adult female on Derby Cathedral. Photo by Graham Whitmore.






















I hope readers will forgive me if I take a moment to note the passing of a family friend whose interest in poetry and peregrines gave pleasure to many. Ray Woodland passed away in his eighties earlier this week. A member of "PM Poets", he allowed us to reproduce one of his pieces last year, and it seems fitting to share this with you again.




The Peregrine

Swifter than swallows and straight as a dye
an elegant peregrine hunting will fly,
bright barred is his plumage, but Nature decreed
that it's hidden from laggards in bursts of sheer speed,-
he falls on his quarry as bullet from gun
and strikes ---- all is over as soon as begun,
then homeward in triumph, his prey in his claws
the bird of the whirlwinds flies on without pause
to his eyrie on cliffside or cathedral ledge
to devour his catch standing bold on the edge
in view of the watchers who envy his skill, ---
immune and indifferent, he does what he will.

Ray Woodland (1924-2008)

32 comments:

Karen Anne said...

I'm very sorry about your friend.

Anonymous said...

Very sad for all who knew him. The poem is superb!!

Anonymous said...

Lovely to read the poem the first time - very sad now....

Anonymous said...

pax Canada 9.36am
I am sorry for your loss.
If the site is ever revamped maybe that beautiful poem could be part of it.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to hear about that. What a beautiful poem! Thank you for posting it on this site. Jennie, HK.

Anonymous said...

pax Canada 11.57pm
falcon on the pudding cam

Anonymous said...

great poem, i guess he loved peregrines as we all do, i hope he saw many in his long life.

kind regards,

mark murfin

Anonymous said...

pax Canada 12.04am
falcon on the scrape

Anonymous said...

Falcon still on scrape!! Quite made my day..............

Karen Anne said...

Lunch at the pudding cam, I uploaded a screen capture to -
http://members.cox.net/katkolling/tmp.JPG

Karen Anne said...

p.s. Can anyone tell which peregrine this is?

Anonymous said...

Have only just caught up with "In Memoriam".

The wonderful photograph and poem are a great tribute to your friend.

Anonymous said...

12.15am Pax Canada
falcon on the scrape

Anonymous said...

Pax Canada 9.20am
falcon on ledge below the scrape

Anonymous said...

Falcon on the scrape!! Lovely sight....

Peregrine Project Member (Nick M.) said...

After so many other people have reported seeing an adult on the scrape, it's nice to see it through the webcams for myself. It's interesting to see how they've maintained the depression by occasional nest-scraping. The live webfeed is always worth checking at those times, despite the unreliability of this element of our equipment. (There's a 30 second lag allowing you to switch from still image to live feed and catch the activity again!)

Karen Anne said...

Peregrine on the nestbox.

I'm starting to get worried about the Australian peregrine nesting situation, certainly little activity at frodocam and anglesea.

It was not a good year for NYC raptors either.

Anonymous said...

Pax Canada 12.10am
falcon on the pudding cam

Karen Anne said...

Peregrine on the nest box.

Karen Anne said...

Live feed seems down, at least I'm just getting a black screen and no sound.

Anonymous said...

Pax Canada 12.10am
falcon on the scrape

Karen Anne said...

Peregrine on the pudding cam.

Alcoa Anglesea peregrines have laid three eggs. I thought I was checking every day and seeing no webcam, but suddenly it and the eggs all appeared. I'm not sure if they were late getting the webcam up, or if my brain fogged up. Anyway, good news.

Karen Anne said...

Peregrine on the nestbox, preening, checking out the area, esp. upwards. Live feed working and very enjoyable to watch, except no sound.

Anonymous said...

9.41am Pax Canada
falcon on the scrape

Anonymous said...

Pax Canada 12.31am
fuzzy pic. of falcon on pudding cam.

Anonymous said...

Would there be any possibilities of getting anymore new photos, its all gone a bit quite?

Anonymous said...

Pax Canada 9.00am
wonderful close up shot on the pudding cam

Anonymous said...

Pax Canada
there was a wonderful shot of a falcon on the pudding cam at 5.00pm your time, it had prey with it and spent 20 mins enjoying it , it was wonderful to watch

Anonymous said...

Lovely falcon on Pudding Cam - what a nice start to the day!!!!

Karen Anne said...

Peregrine on the nestbox.

Anonymous said...

pax Canada 11.38pm
Bonus! 2falcons on the pudding cam

Anonymous said...

bird on pudding cam plucking supper. Very faint but can just pick it out in the dark. was this be some poor sole passing on migration?