Natural Selection

In a previous blog I wrote about being at Sabine’s Cambridge graduation ceremony and hearing Peregrines during the proceedings from the cathedral. Ann Taylor kindly pointed out that it wasn’t the cathedral, and indeed they favour the old Emmanuel Church and the spires of King’s College Chapel. But anyway history repeated itself today at Bryony’s graduation.

Bryony did Law at Leeds, she finished in 2020 but with the pandemic the ceremonials have only now been possible. As we stood on the steps of the Parkinson Building taking shots of Bry in her gown once more a Peregrine could be heard over the throng of graduands and parents (and a picket line…).

Like the Cambridge University Peregrines the Leeds University birds have their own Twitter account (@UoLperegrine). It states on there that the female favours perching on the tower of the Parkinson Building, whilst the male’s preference is one of two nearby church spires. So on that basis it was presumably the male that we could hear and see (it’s about three quarters of the way up in the phone picture above).

So in nice symmetry the graduations of both my daughters were both punctuated by the local Peregrine Falcons. And in both cases Peregrines that are social media celebrities, reflecting the fact that people care about them and are interested in their daily lives and particularly whether they are successful in raising young.

Rather than finish with a metaphor of some kind here is another picture from today, with both Bryony and Sabine mentioned above who I am very proud of.