Incubation time and a new TV screen in the Cathedral

So now we are in the period of incubation when the eggs are kept warm by the parent birds as they develop.
We can expect hatching to take place sometime around Easter, 18-21 April.
Until then, there's not much happening except change overs as the pair share the work of sitting on the eggs.

If you missed it, scroll down the blog to read about the egg laying period and be sure to check out the comments which include many video clips made for us by Wendy Bartter.

Here's just one of those showing a changeover on 25th March:

There have been 67,000 hits to the web cams and blog in 2025 so far and over 5,500,000 since the cams were installed in 2007. Scroll down the blog to see the Clustr map which shows where in the world folk have been watching!

And the excellently supportive Cathedral staff have just installed a huge TV screen inside the cathedral showing the live web cam feed.

The Project Team

This project, now in its 20th year, is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with great support from its partners; The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and Derby City Council's IT team.

Three eggs by Saturday (15th) and four by 18th

Update Tuesday 18th: a fourth egg was laid this morning!
Please check out the comments for more information/video clips.

           All four eggs visible today (18th). Screenshot by Kate

Here's a video by Wendy showing a change over yesterday:

The third egg was laid yesterday and here's a screenshot taken by Kate in Devon to whom many thanks:

                                The eggs. the darkest was the first. Screenshot by Kate.

To read about the first two eggs and find links to videos posted by Wendy Barrter please scroll down to the previous post and its comments.

The Project team
The project is in its 20th year!

The project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with support from its partners Derby Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and Derby City Council's IT team.

New photos of our pair and the first egg followed by two more....

Update Saturday evening - egg number three appears!

Update Thursday morning: a SECOND EGG was laid early this morning, spotted by Jean. With luck we'll have a full clutch of four by sometime on Monday.

Update: we have our first egg today (10th), a whole week earlier than in 2024!
It was spotted this afternoon by eagle-eyed regular web cam watcher Kate down in Devon. Here's her screen grab:

And here's a video captured by Wendy Barrter clearly showing the egg which seems to have been laid just before 3pm.

Go to the comments to see many more videos posted to YouTube by Wendy.

On 3rd March, Dave Farmer, who is a regular photographer of our birds spent three hours down at the Cathedral watching them and taking photos.

He wrote: 

"I arrived at 11.50am. At 1.45 action ensued.
The male was perched on the right hand lead rain spout looking quite relaxed.

The male on the lead spout. Dave Farmer
(easyphotography.co.uk)

He left suddenly to chase away a second female which he did really easily.
Whilst he was doing that the "real" (resident) female took up station on the nest platform. She was continually scanning the sky.

The resident female keeps a wary eye.   Photo: Dave Farmer

(easyphotography.co.uk )

As this was my first visit this year, I don't know if mating has taken place but I think the odds are that it has."

Thanks so much Dave!

Scroll down to the previous post to read about the abseil to clean up the platform and see the comments below it which include links to the video clips that Wendy Bartter makes and puts on YouTube for us.

The Project Team
This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with support from its partners, The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter & Derby City Council's IT team.

The project is celebrating its 20th year! There have now been OVER 5 million hits to the web cams and blog since 2007!

Abseil day in our 20th Year!

Nick Evans about to abseil down to the nest platform

Today (19th) Nick Evans, who made the current nest platform, abseiled down to clean it up and adjust the cameras before the start of the nesting season. He was assisted by Nick Moyes.
Some anti-pigeon plastic spikes which had fallen off the top of one of the cameras (designed to stop the falcons using it as a perch) were removed and replaced.

Wendy Barrter has put together this speeded up video. The clean up took Nick 42 minutes, the video lasts just 5!

Derby Peregrines 19th Feb 2025 at 13:31 Nestbox clean up 

This is our annual clean-up event and it has just occured to us that this is our 20th year with this successful project which started back  in 2006 when the first platform was installed by the two aforementioned Nicks.

The first web cams were added by Nick Moyes a year later in 2007.

Hopefully in the next few weeks you may see (and hear) the peregrine pair displaying to each other and also scraping a shallow depression in the gravel where eggs will eventually be laid. Mating itself usually takes place on the stonework above the nest, out of view of the cameras!

Do put a comment on this blog if you see any activity?

Fingers crossed for a successful outcome in this special year!

The Project Team (volunteers Nick Moyes and Nick Brown plus DWT staff Diane Gould and Marc Whitlock who will be organising the Watch Point events).

The project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with wonderful support from Derby Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and Derby City Council.

A New Year begins

Happy New Year to all our blog readers and webcam watchers. We've had snow, ice and much wet weather in recent months but, as usual, the mighty peregrine falcon can take all this in its stride. Its mountain habitats are far wilder than anything they might experience in Derby, here in the centre of England. 

We've turned a corner, and soon the days will soon start to become noticeably longer, and our pair of pergrine falcons will become more active on the nest platform. Occasionally they visit the nest ledge on the side of Derby Cathedral to maintain their claim on their nest site and to get ready for the next breeding season.

Last night we took a screenshot of the nest from Cam 1 and took another this morning. There has clearly been activity and some nest-scraping between these shots. 

You may notice a small, spiked piece of plastic in the nighttime shot. This is a fragment of a bird spike that must have come loose and fallen from one of our cameras. They were placed there some years ago to discourage any bird from perching directly on top of the cameras. It's nothing to be worried about. They're very light and this fragment is easily moved. So, although we'll remove this when we do a pre-breeding maintenance abseil, it won't hinder the birds in any way. As we see in the daytime shot a few hours later, it will simply be pushed aside as if a twig had fallen into the scape and ignored. 

We have reset our visitor counter for 2025, noting a significant increase in unique visits to our blog and webcams last year. We ended December with 321,000 such visits - up some 90,000 on 2023), and we look forward to welcoming many of you again over the coming twelve months.

Still three on last Watch Point day

Update 15th June:
Watch Point volunteer Helen went down to the Cathedral on Sunday morning and reported seeing all five birds looking fine!

The Sunday Times (16 June) had a short article in the print edition about peregrines on UK cathedrals with a mention of the Derby Cathedral birds included. 

There's a much longer, online article with many more photos and quotes but it is behind a £1 /month paywall.

Update 14th June: all three have fledged successfully with at least one returning occasionally.
If you've enjoyed watching the webcams do please consider making a donation to keep the project going for next year.

There's a donations tab on the top of the blog landing page.

Many thanks and see you all next year!

Ps The web cams stay live all year round and the adults remain close to and sometimes on the nest platform.....

Update 11 June:
More photos by Dave Farmer, taken yesterday, show the now confident male, XRL on the tower's stonework shouting for food:

And looking down on the world below:

Update 8th June:

The Watch Point was slightly disrupted by other events going on nearby but our volunteers stayed through to the end so a big thank you to them and for helping out at all four Watch Points. Thanks too to the DWT staff who helped and to John from Cathedral Quarter who organised the gazebo.

Volunteer Helen summarising the morning said:

A very active morning. The adults and all three juveniles were showing well all the time. There were several occasions when we thought one of the young birds was going to fly. One of them fluttered up to the right hand side of the platform and briefly perched at the side of the camera bracket, before dropping back down on to the scrape.
One of the big females looks ready to go. Lots of wing flapping and head bobbing. We could clearly see the difference in size between the male juvenile and the two bigger females when all three were perched on the edge of the platform.
A red kite drifted overhead, prompting the adult male to fly from it's perch half way up the tower. One of the adult falcons very nearly caught a pigeon just to the left of us over the buildings but the pigeon just managed to swerve out of the way at the last moment. There was also a tussle with the local gulls to add to the scene!

Wendy Bartter made this video today:

And on Friday, Dave Farmer took these photos:

                               Showing the difference between the adult on the right and the juvenile.
                                                                Photo: Dave Farmer

                      One of the bigger female juveniles looks out on a busy Cathedral Green below
                                                     Photo: Dave Farmer

                         No sign of any white fluff now! Photo: Dave Farmer

The Project Team
The Project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust support from partners The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and Derby City Council

Return to the nest, the last Watch Point tomorrow and a request

It seems the young male that fell off on Tuesday has managed to get back to the nest platform with all three juveniles present this morning (Friday 7th).
Thanks to everyone who sent in comments.
When a juvenile leaves the nest platform, it is rare for it to return so quickly so this was quite a surprise.
This screengrab is by Kate and shows all three this morning:

Meanwhile the final Watch Point takes place tomorrow, Saturday 8th and by then, who knows what might have happened.
So do come down to the Cathedral if you live nearby.
DWT trainee Chloe and our excellent Watch Point volunteers look forward to seeing you!

This project comes to you free and 24/7. It costs between £2-3000 to run each year and we rely to a great extent on donations from web cam watchers. So please consider sending a donation if you have enjoyed (and are still enjoying) watching.

There's a donations tab on the blog landing page.

Many thanks in advance!

The Project Team
The Project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with support from its partners The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and the City Council IT team.