Young falcons graduate from flying school

West Sussex Over a few short weeks the peregrine chicks have grown from ungainly youngsters into aerobats like their parents

The piercing calls coming from above, high up on the chalk cliff, reveal that there are still peregrine falcons at home. Four chicks have fledged, and over the course of a few short weeks I've been watching them grow from ungainly youngsters, flapping in short, clumsy flights across the cliff face, to become stronger aerobats like their parents. The mother soars overhead, her tail fanned out, and slowly banks and turns back towards the cliff, calling again, the sun catching her grey and white face. The young birds - brown with heavily streaked breasts - answer, their voices sounding more like squeaks than the piercing shrieks of the adult.

In the past week, both parents have been enticing the chicks to follow them by carrying prey in their talons, which they give to the young mid-air. When they all leave the nest site, probably some time in the next few weeks, the adults will teach them how to hunt live prey - birds in flight - over the Downs.