[RobSutton]

Years ago when peregrines were rare and the few nests in the Dales were wardened I spent a spring/summer guarding one of the nests and my lasting memory:

Being up at 4:30am in the morning munching on an egg butty as I watched the crag when a fox came trotting along the bottom and the female peregrine went spare. Climbing up to 50 feet or so she then stooped full speed at the foxes head, you could see the hairs parting as the peregrine reached the bottom of her dive, she then climbed back up and did it again and again and again. The poor fox spread-eagled on the ground and inching towards the shelter of a stunted hawthorn tree every time the peregrine climbed up again to start another stoop. All the time she was screaming full voice - magnificent. They're still my favourite raptor and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, to this day, every time I think about it or I hear that call.