Crash landing for peregrine chick from Chichester Cathedral in storm

The rare bird of prey crash-landed on the pavement outside the Duke of Rye pub in Tower Street after the heavy rain left its feathers waterlogged.

Fortunately, the fledgling appears to be unharmed as it was sighted flying with the other three chicks around the cathedral on Sunday.

Valerie Gospling from Chichester was out with her daughter Joanne. She said: “We just walked across Tower Street and the bird fell out of the sky at our feet. We stayed with the bird for 20 minutes, it stayed and it just managed to hop onto a ledge about a foot high.”

The falcon appears to have suffered little more than having its feathers ruffled. Wildlife photographer David Shaw, who is following the chicks’ development, sighted the bird apparently at ease in the sky at the weekend.

His wife Janet added that the bird, ringed as number 68, crashed into the Cloister café roof last week. “He’s still a novice flyer,” she said.

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