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Description
This is Siren, a peregrine falcon from this year's clutch. She was raised by me and Jamie and she's the best of the bunch! Isn't she lovely?

She's only a few weeks old and fully fledged. She grew up in our house on the table (they have an instinct that means they don't go over the edge - because in the wild they nest on cliffs). It was VERY messy and made our house smell of nappies. In the middle of the night if I got up to go to the loo, I had to go through the living room and stepped in several squidgy piles of crap. Also she was sooooooo noisy. On the first day she was here, Jamie got tired of the noise instantly and retired to his room to wear earplugs and sleep off his headache. I'm used to it, after having an imprint buzzard, but even I think that being woken at 6am by a falcon saying "What's going on? The sun has risen and I HAVEN'T GOT ANY FOOD!" is less than cute.

We had another one at the time too, called Silouet (the Belgian named her). One morning we woke up to find that Siren had fledged...onto Silouet, who was very surprised.

Now Siren has her own aviary, comes to the lure and flies around lots. She loves preening my hair. She's definitely got a special place in my heart, such a lovely, gentle falcon. Of course she bites, foots and makes a lot of noise - all wild animals do - but she is the loveliest wild thing I have met so far.

I like this photo but I'd like to make it better - any suggestions welcome.

Description
This is Siren, a peregrine falcon from this year's clutch. She was raised by me and Jamie and she's the best of the bunch! Isn't she lovely?

She's only a few weeks old and fully fledged. She grew up in our house on the table (they have an instinct that means they don't go over the edge - because in the wild they nest on cliffs). It was VERY messy and made our house smell of nappies. In the middle of the night if I got up to go to the loo, I had to go through the living room and stepped in several squidgy piles of crap. Also she was sooooooo noisy. On the first day she was here, Jamie got tired of the noise instantly and retired to his room to wear earplugs and sleep off his headache. I'm used to it, after having an imprint buzzard, but even I think that being woken at 6am by a falcon saying "What's going on? The sun has risen and I HAVEN'T GOT ANY FOOD!" is less than cute.

We had another one at the time too, called Silouet (the Belgian named her). One morning we woke up to find that Siren had fledged...onto Silouet, who was very surprised.

Now Siren has her own aviary, comes to the lure and flies around lots. She loves preening my hair. She's definitely got a special place in my heart, such a lovely, gentle falcon. Of course she bites, foots and makes a lot of noise - all wild animals do - but she is the loveliest wild thing I have met so far.

I like this photo but I'd like to make it better - any suggestions welcome.