Saturday 31 March 2018

A wet egg - in time for Easter and a second on Monday!

Update 8pm Monday 2nd April:
Egg number two arrived at 6.20pm this evening, about two and a half days after the first.
So the next one should appear during Wednesday evening or more likely on Thursday morning.....photo to follow tomorrow hopefully......


The first egg of 2018 was laid at some time during the night and now, in the daylight, it looks very wet - the weather has been throwing rain at the nest platform for many hours now. It is normal for the first three eggs not to be incubated until the clutch is complete.....so being wet, and cooling down, isn't a problem. The egg will still be viable.
This is the female's 48th egg, laying her first clutch in 2006 (three eggs) and clutches of four in every year since making this the start of her 13th clutch.

We can expect subsequent eggs at about two day intervals.....

This screen capture was made by Kate at 7 am this morning:
Egg Number One....looking wet!


A nice little piece about the egg was on East Midlands Today BBC1 news this evening:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09x06lm/east-midlands-today-weekend-news-31032018


And here's a Wendy Barter video showing the male bringing food to the incubating female mid-morning on a very wet and cold Bank Holiday Monday:

24 comments:

Joyce S said...

Fantastic news 😍

Unknown said...

I've been watching her for several days now so delighted the first egg has arrived.

Wendy Bartter said...

Catching up with vid footage ... poor Mrs DP soaked last night ...https://youtu.be/aPwHu31zXoA
And a bit later moves to perch on ledge ..https://youtu.be/Xy6ADfkUjzA
Rather disappointing footage of FIRST EGG taken from still image cam which fogs over in early morning sun after rain ..https://youtu.be/aKxsGirnANw

Got caught out, stayed up late watching as was sure laying was imminent but it wasn't & then couldn't wake up in time to see the event this morning in daylight!! Whoops! Better luck next time hopefully!

Wendy Bartter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

What marvellous timing, a real egg for Easter Day! No rain forecast for us in Derby today, thank goodness. But there is a faint possibility of snow tomorrow - again!

Anne in Allestree

Phoebe said...

I just missed some footage but is there a second egg? I saw she pushing one underneath.

Heather said...

Both Mr & Mrs P on scrape. She's lying down so can't see if she still has only one egg. Fortunately not too much snow on her side of scrape.Seems we have more snow in Bakewell area of Derbyshire (whenever is it going to end?!).

Anonymous said...

We woke up here in Allestree to a covering of snow, now it is pouring with rain. I feel so sorry for the poor peregrines especially being exposed up on the scrape!

Wendy Bartter said...

How dreadful for you all & folk on holidays & our poor birds ... just lashing rain down South-East!

Nick B said...

Thanks for all your comments folks.
Peregrines are birds that have evolved to survive in harsh environments such as mountains and on sea cliffs so they are adapted to deal with the sorts of weather we've been having recently.
Some of you will remember the Nottingham pair incubating (successfully) while covered in a deep blanket of snow a few years ago. Only the incubating bird's head showed above the whiteness!
And you may also recall that our female was lashed with heavy rain for a whole day a few years ago but she sat tight and kept her eggs dry throughout despite been thoroughly soaked through to the skin it seemed....
Nick

Helen said...

Still only one egg at the moment!

Helen said...

It seems that both birds are taking turns looking after the egg in this awful weather. The very wet male bird was just replaced by the much drier female. Hopefully we will see another egg sometime today.

Helen said...

Just swapped back again now after the male bird arrived back with some food, and the female took off again.

Wendy Bartter said...

Footage from 10.56 this morning sees the Mister bringing food & giving his Mrs a much needed break ...https://youtu.be/rooMfp6XfWk

Wendy Bartter said...

Well said Nick reminding us that the birds are much more well adapted to the awful weather conditions than us mere mortals! Lol It's in our nature to transfer our own discomforts to various animals even though we know they can cope & most certainly don't think of us in the same fashion ... just one of our frailties!
Come on Mrs DP ... where's that egg?

Helen said...

Egg number two has just arrived! Yeah!

Anonymous said...

Second egg here!

Unknown said...

Just spotted a second egg. Fantastic!!

Wendy Bartter said...

Fantastic to get TWO Easter Eggs ... recording from still image cam shows quite clearly when egg drops ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHSNFz7P8FE ... timed by this @ 18.20

Vicky said...

Wow! And here we go again. The wait, the excitement. So happy to see it starting again. Well done Mrs P. 2 eggs already. Thanks for the pictures. eggs alone at the moment.

Vicky said...

Parent sitting on the ledge now.

Vicky said...

Eggs are being covered.

Wendy Bartter said...

Mrs DP kindly gave us a good look ...https://youtu.be/EeeJLjeRyZk

George Briggs said...

Not so good for pigeon fanciers race birds that they pay good money for... do you bin the id rings?