Peregrine Falcons first nested on Derby's Cathedral, England, in 2006. Our Peregrine Project is now run by a partnership between Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, Derby City Council, Derby Cathedral and the Cathedral Quarter. Here is what's happening in 2025. . .
The peregrines are still using the platform to the delight of at least a few dedicated web cam watchers!
Some years the juveniles hang about for a few weeks after fledging but in others they move away and start to live on their own or, at least, move away from the cathedral itself.
This time it seems they are hanging about......for now anyway.
The Project team
This project relies on private donations. Please click on the donations tab on the blog home page to donate.
The project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with support from the Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and the IT team at the city council.
Update 17th June: The two youngsters continue to visit the nest platform though with less frequency as time goes on. How much longer will they hang about in view of the web cams?
It was good to see a still from our cathedral web cam featuring prominently on the Wildlife Trusts national news story about the various web cams run by local trusts all over the UK: Webcams | The Wildlife Trusts .
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The rain held off for today's final Watch Point (on 7th June).
One of our excellent team of volunteers, Joyce Sawford, wrote this report with some great photos by Luke Wibberley to whom thanks:
"We had a great Watchpoint today - over 200 visitors of all ages came to look through our telescopes and binoculars. All four peregrines were visible for most of the time. The young male gave us some spectacular displays of how good he is at flying now! At one point he came back in to land on top of the right hand camera, knocking the adult male off in the process, who then flew back to his favoured perch above the ‘shield’ on the right above the nest ledge.
The young male on the nave roof near the Watch Point Photo: Luke Wibberley
The young female never moved far from her comfortable spot on the crenellations below the nest ledge , and the adult female brought her down some food from the nest ledge just as we were packing away. At times the young female sat up with her back to us, so we could point out the row of pale feathers at the base of her tail, but she spent a lot it time lying flat out and resting.
The juvenile female just below the nest platform Photo: Luke Wibberley
The adult female spent a lot of time keeping watch by the rain gulley on the left above the nest on a level with the grotesques, and she retrieved some prey from the right hand rain gulley, taking it back to the nest ledge for the young male and herself to share.
The juv male peers down at his sister below. Photo; Luke Wibberley
Please, if you can, do send a donation to keep the webcams rolling, and we’ll look forward to seeing you all again at next year’s Watchpoints".
Brother (above) and sister (below) show their relative positions. Photo: Luke Wibberley.
Hopefully there'll still be something to see on the web cams with the young male showing up from time to time.
Thanks to everyone who has engaged with our project in its 20th season. Please do support us by making a donation to keep us running for next year and beyond.
The Project Team The project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with support from Derby Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter & the city Council's IT team
Update Saturday 7th June Today's Watch Point event starts at 10am and will go ahead as planned though, should rain become heavy, it might be curtailed early. Please come down and support it if you can.
Update 6th June
The young male keeps returning to the platform whereas the female remains out of sight of the cams but we feel sure, safely up on a roof nearby or more probably on the tower itself somewhere.
Meanwhile and before you drift away to watch other web cams, can we urge you to make a donation to this project if you have been a regular web cam watcher and commentator? So far donations have been minimal and the project will not continue unless we get more income which, as explained before, comes almost entirely from kind web cam watchers.
There's a donations tab on the blog home page......
Thanks in advance!
Update 8am on Wednesday 4th June
Last night's successful rescue of the grounded large (and feisty) female (which was then released at the top of the tower about 9.50pm), we hope will be the final intervention and the two young birds will quickly get better at flying and landing successfully up high on nearby buildings and indeed on the cathedral - usually on the long ledge well above the platform.
The female on the ground just before being captured. Photo; Roger Lawson
Going on previous years experiences, it's not often that either juvenile will return to the platform but perhaps occasionally to the crenellations below visible from the cams...but each juvenile is different and the male at least has been back several times in the last few days (and indeed has done so this morning). Whether the female will do so remains to be seen.
It has been very blustery in Derby over the last few days and the likelihood that the female bird bumped into a building (probably the cathedral) was always a possibility.
One of our volunteers will check the cathedral environs this morning on his way to work but if the female is still on the top of the tower, she will not be visible from the ground.
If you have not yet made a donation, please consider doing so, we depend on you showing your appreciation and support in this way.
Wendy's video of the young male back in the platform this morning:
The Project Team The project is managed by DWT but with significant help from volunteers and great support from The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and the city council's IT team.
Ps. The web cam connectivity alone costs over £1000 per year and total costs are in the region of £2000.
The juvenile female has been located on a high roof near the cathedral and she should be fine now and very unlikely to come to ground. The male is already an accomplished flier so he'll be fine too.
Meanwhile and before you drift away to watch other web cams, can we urge you to make a donation to this project if you have been a regular web cam watcher and commentator? So far donations have been minimal and the project will not continue unless we get more income which, as explained before, comes almost entirely from kind web cam watchers.
There's a donations tab on the blog home page......
Thanks in advance!
Update 9pm 31 May
After a lot of flying about, the juvenile male finally managed to get back to the platform and get fed. These birds are much more resilient than we think!
Please consider making a donation to this project which almost entirely depends on web cam watchers and Watch Point visitors making donations. Go to the tab on the blog called Donations. Thanks in advance.
Juvenile male finds it way to a nearby roof before returning to the platform. Photo: Ant Pooles Marc Whitlock (DWT) sent this account of today's Watch Point:
On a warm and windy watchpoint today early drama saw the young male peregrine reappear after a short absence. He was spotted shortly after 10am by one of our volunteers on nearby rooftops on Full Street. It later attempted to land on the north side of the tower but then returned to nearby rooftops. There was a lot of wing flapping from its sibling on the nest platform with both parents looking on. The adults both took flights, some lower over Cathedral Green before returning to familiar perches on the tower. During the watchpoint, a buzzard and a red kite flew high over the tower. Of the 150+ visitors to the watchpoint was a little girl who came on her birthday with her sister following a talk on peregrines at their school recently.
This video shows both juveniles on the platform late this afternoon.
10.30 am Saturday 31st May After a long and fruitless search of the cathedral roofs, the young male was found safe and well on the roof of a nearby building soon after. He later flew strongly round the back of the cathedral and will be perching somewhere there. The adult female was in close attendance.
Watch point volunteers will keep a close eye on him this morning and see what happens.
We'll update as and when we have any further news of him.
The project team
This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust but relies heavily on the input of volunteers. Support comes from The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and the city council's IT team.
Update 31 May - young male found sitting on nearby roof looking fine. Please see new post for more detail.
Update 30th May| The male chick is still just below the platform this morning with the female hunkered down out of sight from the ground. Please read the text below explaining what the situation is.
Update May 29th: the project team is aware that one of the chicks appears to have been blown or pushed onto the tower just below the platform. We'll keep checking the comments for further news but if the chick has found a ledge it can perch on, it should be OK and will be fed by the parent birds. Certainly we could not abseil down either in this gusty wind or without risking the other chick jumping ship as well, making matters worse. And in addition we would need to get permission from Natural England to visit the nest since this is a Schedule 1 species with special protection.
Yesterday's Watch Point went really well with visitors from Canada, Austria and Turkey dropping by as well as many interested youngsters, according to WP volunteer Gill Foxcroft. The next one is THIS SATURDAY 31st MAY so do try to get along if you can.
Composite photo by Gill Foxcroft
May 25th
Yesterday's Watch Point went very well as described in the previous blog entry (scroll down to read about it).
The next one is this Wednesday, 10 am to 2pm on Cathedral Green and the following ones are on Saturday May 31st and Saturday 7th June.
If you are enjoying the web cams then please consider making a donation specifically to support this project which relies on donations from web cam watchers and watch point attendees. There's a tab on the blog home page labled 'Donations' which tells you how you can donate.
The Project Team This Project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, aided by The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and the City Council's IT team to whom thanks.
Update 24 May The first Watch Point took place today and was a huge success! Helen, one of our brilliant volunteer team wrote:
Yesterday's watchpoint was very well attended, with nearly three hundred visitors by the end of the session. Lots of children were among them, including one very young girl who literally jumped for joy when she caught her first glimpse of the peregrines through our telescope. She had come with her family especially to see them, and her excitement at seeing the birds made our day! Both of the adult birds were around for most of the time, with the female on the platform and the male perched higher up on the tower keeping a watchful eye on the chicks below. We had some great views of the chicks looking over the edge of the platform, occasionally flapping their wings and sending clouds of white down into the air. They were fed twice during the morning and it was good to see them with full crops. The peregrines provided plenty of excellent photo opportunities and you can see some of the great pictures taken by Luke W, who has kindly shared them on our Flickr group - https://www.flickr.com/photos/194643864@N05/54542607375/in/pool-derbyperegrines/ . Luke has more fantastic photographs of peregrines on his own Flickr account. A brilliant first watchpoint with more to come! The next Watch Point is this Wednesday 28th May between 10 am to 2 pm . Do come along and see the birds for real!! Our super volunteers and Marc Whitlock from DWT will be on hand with telescopes and lots of great information!
And FYI: the camera on the right hand side of the platform has been repositioned this morning to afford better views of the chicks.....
Update 20th May: here's a further video from Wendy made today showing how big the chicks are now and how their first feathers are beginning to appear! Growth is so fast it is not surprising that the chicks need to lie down, sometimes for long periods.....
Update 15th May: please be aware that the chicks are now mobile and often move to the side of the platform where they can't be seen on either camera. They have not fallen off! Here's a YT video by Wendy of the chicks taken on 16th May. They have grown big for sure!
As the two chicks grow and become visible from the ground below, it's time for us to organise a few Watch Points enabling visitors to the cathedral (and to Derby if you live within reach) to see and learn more about these fabulous birds. This year the organising has been carried out by Marc Whitlock who works for the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust which manages this project. We have a wonderful team of volunteers who help us every year and who will be on hand to point things out and help you with the telescopes.
The dates are:
Saturday 24th May Wednesday 28th May Saturday 31st May and Saturday 7th June.
Each will run on Cathedral Green, behind the Cathedral on Full Street between 10 am and 2pm.
The telescopes are set up on the grass on Cathedral Green which makes a very pleasant place to watch the birds 'for real' - quite a different experience from just watching the web cams. It's entirely free and you can stay as long as you wish. Bring a folding chair, some lunch and some binoculars if you have them!
You will see the adults flying about and going to the platform to feed the chicks, the chicks teetering on the platform edge once they have feathers and are flexing them and other wildlife passing by too.
Nest platform circled in red. Photo Nick Moyes
This has included buzzards (which the falcons sometimes attack!), red kites, sparrowhawks and occasionally ravens which now nest just outside the city and which, a few years back, started to build a nest on the cathedral much to the annoyance of the peregrines which chased them off!
Adults photographed in 2022 by Dave Farmer from the ground below: male left, female right. Also with the River Derwent close by, we often see grey wagtails, banded demoiselles and even a kingfisher if you are very lucky!
Do bring youngsters if you have any...they really love seeing the birds! Photo Nick Brown
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