Falcon found dead in Derby

Yesterday morning (12th) we were contacted by Derby Cathedral who had been handed the corpse of a peregrine falcon.

It had been found dead below the cathedral's tower, near seating on Irongate. It weighed 1.04kg which makes it a female. The smaller males always weigh much less.
She looked to have been in good shape before she died. There were no obvious signs of injury or feather damage which might have suggested she had been involved in a fight with another falcon or collided with the tower.

An X-ray carried out today for us by Blenheim Veterinary Centre in Ashbourne showed no signs of any gunshot or broken bones. (An X-ray of a male peregrine found dead near a nest site in Belper a few years ago showed clear evidence of shotgun pellets in the bird's body.) So perhaps she died of a disease, even of bird flu. 

Meanwhile, so far there's no clear evidence from the webcams, or from the ground, that there are still two birds present. So currently we are working on the assumption that this is the female from our Derby pair, rather than an intruder which has been fought off, injured and died. 
If so, this is very sad, but it won't spell the end for Derby's peregrines falcons. This situation has occurred before over the years and, thanks to conservation work like ours up and down the UK, we now know there will be unmated birds moving through the area in due course, which could be enticed by our resident male to form a new pair. This could happen in weeks or months - we will have to wait and see.

We initially intended to collect the corpse in order to send it on to the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme who undertake analysis to look for signs of disease, poisoning or other injuries. However, that scheme has been put on hold at the moment because of the current bird flu epidemic. Instead, we have arranged for DEFRA to collect the corpse from us and conduct a series of tests which will show whether bird flu was present and, if not, what other disease symptoms were present. The results may well take quite a while to come back to us.

You, as webcam watchers, can also help us by keeping your eyes open for signs of two birds together and by leaving a note in the comments section of this blog post if you do.

Obviously, we appreciate how hard it can be to distinguish the smaller male from the larger female when there's only just one bird in view. But knowing whether people online or shoppers out walking in Derby city centre have seen two peregrines at the same time would be immensely helpful. Two of our most regular watchers, Kate and Wendy, have already sent us some screenshots which we'll be looking at to see if it changes our initial ideas of what's been happening.

And, meanwhile, for those of you wondering about the state of our nest platform, and what we're doing about it, be assured that we are currently looking at the best way forward to ensure that peregrine falcons continue to nest and breed on Derby Cathedral for years to come. 

The Project Team (currently Nick M and Nick B)

This project is managed by DWT in partnership with The Cathedral and the City Council's IT team.

Platform problems November 2025

As many of you know, the bottom of the nest platform, aka the scrape, has rotted and was sagging badly.
Today (21st) Nick Evans, who made it for us, has very kindly abseiled down on a freezing morning to check the situation and remove the heavy gravel and slates.
Wendy Bartter made this (compressed) video of Nick at work, work which actually took him over an hour!

The project team will discuss how to proceed and replace the existing structure well before the breeding season, perhaps using materials which will last longer.

We are confident the birds will not desert the nest or the cathedral  and will continue to use the remaining parts of the platform as perches as winter progresses.

The Project Team
This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with the help of volunteers, and supported by The Cathedral and the city council's IT team.

Still around

 

The peregrines are still using the platform on Derby Cathedral, much to the delight of at least a few dedicated web cam watchers who regularly post updates in the comments! It's well-worth checking these out at the bottom of the most recent post as it will give you an idea of what's been happening recently. 

To stop spammers, we don't permit comments to be added to any blog post that is more than three months old. So, this post is simply to refresh that timer during the 'quiet season'. Please remember to add topical comments only to the most recently published post.    

It's quite normal to see occasional nest scraping activity even in the depths of winter, as one or other of the adult birds reinforces their link to the nesting platform. Feel free to add any observations that you've made whilst watching our webcams to the comments below.

The Project Team

This project relies on private donations. Please click on the 'Donate' tab on the blog home page if you'd like to support our work.

The Peregrine Project project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with support from the Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and the IT team at Derby City Council.

Still showing up at 7th August!

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.

Still showing up

 It's now 24th June and still at least one of the juveniles is using the platform and therefore is visible on the web cams.
Long may it continue!

It's (almost) all over bar the shouting!

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 .

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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

All's well that ends well

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.