Thinking about all your replies, two notions occur to me –
First, that it’s likely characteristic of this literary form (i.e. the
journal-style natural history) that it telescopes time, so that sightings of
such a “glamour” species seem populous within the book’s geography due to the
author’s thrilled recording of every peregrine’s passage, within compressed
time, & at disproportionate coverage compared to all other species recorded.
Secondly, the northern-hemisphere peregrines are migratory (in contrast to the
sedentary habits of Australian breeding adults [Debus 2001]) – so at any one
location surely here we will rarely see more than the same pair, & where the
habitat is unsuitable are unlikely ever to see the species. Britishers, though,
in the Ansell DEEP COUNTRY example, will see the species coming & going, as
well as those seasonally staying.
?
Judith
SEQ 500m
>
>
> Having just finished reading DEEP COUNTRY by Neil Ansell (five years in the
> Welsh hills, alone in a remote world), which is an account of the birds'
> lives there too, I've recalled how many British natural histories like this
> are filled with raptors. Falcons particularly seem to course the British
> skies as populously as swallows. When you think how rare & fortunate it is to
> see a Peregrine streak by in Australia — Is it really like that in Britain?
> ... & if so, why are the peregrine falcons so sparse here?
>
> Judith
> SEQ 500m
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