Return of the Sussex peregrines – where have they come from?
IN AN earlier article (Cage & Aviary Birds, August 8, 2018), I discussed the virtual extinction of peregrine falcon populations in the South of England during the 1950s and their spectacular recolonisation from 1990 onwards.
I also dispelled the myth that it was egg mortality caused by eggshell thinning induced by the insecticide DDT that had caused this population collapse in UK. In fact, it was caused by a different group of organophosphate pesticides: the cyclodienes aldrin and dieldrin.
In 1990, after 30 years of absence, the first breeding of peregrines was recorded in the 30km stretch of the Sussex coast between Eastbourne and Brighton. That stretch now supports about 50 pairs:
