Aint no rockin' robins here, just us wild peregrines

Forget soft and fluffy, think the terminator of pigeons on wings.

There'll be no explosions, except for the odd puff of feathers from their lunch, but we could have high speed chases. It's our Date at the Tate running through-out the school holidays.

We'll bring you real life action, drama, passion and blood-lust aplenty. Join us to see a pair of the world's fastest creatures, and maybe, a couple of their off-spring too! It's our annual peregrine watch.

Imagine watching a fighter jet at full throttle with it's after-burners splintering the air behind it. Then consider that a peregrine can dive at speeds of about 200 body lengths per second, 50 body lengths faster than that speeding jet!  Peregrines can see prey a mile off and catch their dinner, usually a pigeon, mid-flight. Snatching it from the air with such ferocity that death is usually instantaneous. That's the action and blood-lust.

As for passion and drama. Our Tate female arrived in London with a male in 2003. She and her then partner were named Misty and Houdini. He mysteriously vanished in 2006/07 and her present partner, Bert, was an almost instant replacement. He's a younger man and the pair immediately had a large brood of four chicks. This year, Bert was tempted by a younger female and at one point, was the proud father of some six eggs! However, the nest and eggs of the younger female failed and Bert slunk back to Misty, his tail between his legs and his head hung in shame. Actually, that last bit's rubbish, but the soap opera of their relationship is accurate.

They had three chicks this year, two females and a male. All appear to have fledged successfuly. Last year they had three, but one died after flying into the glass sides of a footbridge in the City. Misty and Bert have taught their offspring to fly, hunt, dive-bomb their dinner and the other essentials of survining in the wild, all be it in London rather than a cliff face in a rural setting.

When we started showing off Misty and Houdini, they were believed to be the first breeding pairs of peregrines in the Capital. Now we have a growing number, with at least ten breeding pairs, possibly a dozen. It's hard to keep track of them as only one peregrine in London appears to have coloured rings on her legs. That one we've traced back to the southcoast near Brighton. She was born on a coastal cliff but has taken a shine to a ledge at Charring Cross Hospital.

We're working with colleagues, including the Metropolitan Police's Wildlife Crime Unit, to monitor and protect all of these birds. If you know of any, do let us know. The more information we have about these amazing birds, the more we'll be able to do to help them live successfully alongside us human residents.

You'll find us alongside the Millennium Bridge outside the Tate Modern on the Southbank every day from this Saturday, noon till 7pm, right through until Sunday, 13 September. Don't miss one of the best shows in town. Oh, and after you've seen the birds this weekend, wander further along the southbank, to Lambeth's Garden Museum for their Wildflower Weekend. This is where you can discover what you can do to help London's wildlife in your garden, or join our Homes for Wildlife project for FREE personalised gardening advice.

Speaking, as I was at the start of this blog, about terminators. Please do take time to sign our Birds of Prey petition to save peregrines and other falcons, hawks and eagles from illegal persecution. They're being hunted down, shot and poisoned simply because some people can't live alongside them for a number of spurious and often patheticly 'historic' reasons.