PROGRAMME for 2023
The next meeting will be on Monday 22 May 2023 at 6.30pm in the upstairs room at the Barley Mow, 104 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 2EE when Dr Richard Sales and Steve Watson will introduce their ground breaking book The Peregrine Falcon. The Peregrine Falcon is a comprehensive 528-page book on this most iconic raptor and it investigates all aspects of Peregrine life, from plumage, through diet, population dynamics, breeding and survival.
Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase on the night at the discounted price of £45. The talk will not be Zoomed live but will be recorded and put up on YouTube shortly afterwards.
The talk will include 4K HD video and images demonstrating up-to-date science and biology of the Peregrine Falcon and all 19 (up for debate) sub-species..
Modern technology (inertial measurement units built by RS) and analyses of breathing, bone structure and eyesight have been used to study the flights, particularly stooping hunts, which have made Peregrines famous as arguably the fastest creature on the planet. The physics of flight and stooping speed is rigorously assessed using basic scientific principles, and a detailed analysis of eye biology, together with observational empirical evidence, allows the authors to suggest greater Peregrine visual acuity than has previously been claimed by the scientific community.
Dr. Richard Sale is an Astrophysicist and author, having co-authored several books on raptors including the Poyser ‘The Gyrfalcon’ and ‘The Snowy Owl’. He has also co-authored self-published books on ‘Steller’s Sea Eagle’, and ‘The Eurasian Hobby’. He wrote the New Naturalist title ‘Falcons’ and authored the self-published ‘The Common Kestrel’ and ‘The Merlin’. He was awarded the ‘US Wildlife Society Book of the Year’ in 2006, 2019 and 2021.
Steve Watson is a retired Chartered Accountant who has conducted a 40-year study into the Peregrine Falcons at Symonds Yat and is a Trustee of the Gloucestershire Raptor Monitoring Group CIO, Raptor Aid CIO and a committee member of South West Peregrines. He produces and fronts presentations on Peregrines and Goshawks for RSPB groups, BTO and Wildlife organisations throughout the UK.
