South Gower Cliffs - Gower - page 104

Peregrines generally choose the highest cliffs for nesting - that is those with the most commanding
outlook and the best protection for eggs and young. Persecution of peregrine falcon chicks and eggs goes
back at least 750 years and it has been suggested that the selection of nest sites has evolved as a response
to human predation. Writing in his history of west Gower, published in 1894, the Reverend Davies says
'I should mention that Worms Head, and the Paviland Cliffs nearby, used to be a very noted place, as the
haunt of the Peregrine Falcon; and some 20 or 30 years ago, a gentleman living in Gloucestershire, who
followed the ancient sport of hawking, used to employ old Jeremiah Cox, one of Mr Talbot's Keepers, to
procure him annually a pair of these young birds or their eggs.'
Ravens (Fig. 56) were once common throughout Britain, but like the peregrine a long history of per-
secution has restricted its range to the more remote and coastal regions. At one stage virtually all the
gamekeepers and farmers in Glamorgan shot them as a matter of course. Thankfully a more enlightened
approachdevelopedandin1907thepioneernaturalist-photographerRichardKeartontookapictureofan
adult raven on Pennard cliffs. The bird gradually re-established itself during the early years of the twen-
tieth century and in the 1950s about twelve pairs of ravens were breeding regularly in the Pennard area,
mostly on the cliffs, but also on occasions in trees. They now breed at very high densities on the cliffs
andoccupytraditionalterritories,basedonparticularcliffs,ortrees,thatprovidenestsites.Ravenshavea
varied diet; they will kill their own prey, usually small birds such as meadow pipits Anthus pratensis , but
they also eat carrion and forage for eggs, reptiles, insects and seeds.
FIG 56 . Raven calling and grasping turf with its bill. There are large young in the nest on the 'Patella beach' below,
near Overton. (Harold Grenfell)
Green woodpeckers Picus viridis , the largest and most colourful of British woodpeckers, are a com-
mon sight on the Gower cliffs. They can often be seen feeding on the closely grazed turf, where they feed
onants and their larvae. The highest breeding numbers in Britain are in South Wales, as green woodpeck-
ers are vulnerable to severe winter weather, which occurs relatively infrequently in this area, and they
need high levels of sheep grazing to create the short turf they require for feeding.