Up and running - a new nest box for 2026!

Webcam view inside the new "tower top box"

This week, we finally completed work on the construction of our brand new peregrine falcon nest box. A live webcamera is also now operational there, too (SEE HERE).

The new "tower top box" nearing completion.

We first had to abseil down to the old platform to remove the collapsing base that was originally filled with heavy pea gravel. This essential task was needed to prevent the falcon attempting to lay eggs there, and to encourage them to find and relocate to our new nest site. Quite simply, any eggs would have rolled off had they tried to lay there. We also took away the main webcam (NEST CAM1) and repositioned it inside the new tower box.

Ecologist and experienced caver, Jess Eades,
helping to remove the old platform base.

Having spent the last three months planning, gaining approval and then building this new nest box, all we can do now is hope our pair of peregrines will find and start to use it. We can do no more.

Whatever happens next, we will nevertheless have to dismantle this box come summer 2026 so that the Cathedral tower can have new boardwalking installed. We will then consider our options for subsequent nesting seasons, as it would be wonderful never to have to abseil down to ring the chicks again.

Looking out from the rear
of the new tower top box.

Design considerations: Of key concern to us was not to unduly impact the visual appearance of the Cathedral tower. For that reason we set back the box by a metre so as not to affect the iconic tower outline when seen from below. We also painted the exterior timbers so it would merge in better with the tower stonework. 

Timberwork near the nest that could potentially be nibbled by the nesting birds are made from untreated wood, whilst those more exposed to the elements, and less likely to be nibbled, are pre-treated against rot.

A hinged door has been built into the back of the nest box for maintenance and chick-ringing, whilst part of the 'landing platform' can also be lifted up for access should it be required. A small wide-angle door viewer was installed into the rear door so we can quickly check if any birds are present. 

Acknowledgments: We are obviously grateful to the Chapter of Derby Cathedral for their enthusiastic support for our Peregrine Project, and especially to Jessica Kilmurray, their Head of Operations, and all the vergers for handing over tower keys at a moment's notice.

Nick Evans has been a stalwart helper ever since he built our first (experimental) nest platform, way back in 2006. He built a replacement in 2010; removed all the gravel from the collapsing platform last November, and then helped us to construct our new design this year.

Thanks also to Anthony Pooles and Roger Lawson for their help as 'gofers', taking innumerable trips to carry timber and tools up to the tower roof, and to Jess Eades and Ian Ferguson for their help with the abseil this week.

Diane Gould at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust has been incredibly encouraging in her oversight of the Project.

Finally, thanks to all of you - our scattered band of webcam watchers and blog post perusers  - who give us so much feedback on what's happening, almost on an hour by hour basis. We know we can rely on you to keep us informed or to pose pertinent questions.

The Peregrine Project Team
(Nick Moyes & Nick Brown)

The Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with its partners, the Cathedral and the City Council's IT team.

National Nestbox Week

Today, Saturday 21st, is the last day of this year's National Nestbox Week.  So we thought we'd pop up to announce that we've now completed our new, experimental peregrine falcon nestbox. 

Nick Moyes pokes his head up through 
the 'landing platform' on the new tower-top box.

It's been quite an effort, hauling tools and timber up the Cathedral tower and working up there in the cold wind. I'm extremely grateful to Nick Evans for his help and especially his carpentry skills without which the construction would have been so much harder. Thanks also to Anthony and Roger for their help in multiple ascents of all 189 steps, taking materials to the top of  the tower.

Rear view of the finished peregrine nest box.
A hinged back gives access for ringing and maintenance.

There are still a number of things to resolve, including lots of tidying up, and trying to set up a new camera in the box. (Note: We have still been without an internet connection for the last week, and are hoping to hear back soon from Derby City Council about fixing the issue). Most importantly, we need to schedule at least one maintenance abseil to remove the sagging base of our old nest platform on the side of the Cathedral tower. We don't want this to remain in place and encourage our birds to try to egg-lay there. We won't be able to do this until the first week of March, but in the meantime we look forward to hearing from anyone who sees peregrine activity from the street below that might indicate they have found this new, temporary home.

 

A landing platform with side 'blinkers' should prevent 
peregrines seeing anyone on the tower, or vice versa 
(unless perched above it, of course!).

See what the new box looks like from the ground - it's hardly visible is it - which was exactly what we wanted on a Grade 1 listed building:

View of the new nest box seen from below.

The box being set back from the stonework means that even the landing platform is barely visible. Spot the protrubing pole on which we hope the adults will land before too long.

                                 

To read more about the issues that led to this temporary nest box on the tower roof, see our two previous posts HERE and HERE. 

This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with support from The Cathedral staff and from Derby City Council's IT team.

New nest box taking shape

 In between days of incessant February rain, we have been working hard on the design and construction of our brand new, experimental peregrine falcon nest box on the tower roof at Derby Cathedral.

Built in 1530, Derby’s stone tower will never have seen anything like this in all its long history. Nor indeed have we!  The previous post explains the rationale and design for this tower ‘top box’. 

Today, Nick Evans and Nick Moyes cut and fixed cladding all round the box that they built a few days ago, and with just the rear hinged door still to clad tomorrow. The framework was cross-braced for strength and rigidity, and a perch-cum-grip bar was fitted towards the front for young birds to hold on to for strengthening their wing muscles. And some 30kg of carefully washed pea gravel was placed in the nest box area, and more is due to be added later for additional stability

Nick Evans beside the partly completely 'top box'.

View looking outwards from beyond
the open rear door of the new nest box.

The box has been set back intentionally from the parapet out of respect for the Grade I listed status of Derby Cathedral. We didn't want this temporary construction to interfere unduly with the outline silhouette of the tower when seen from the street below - hence the long landing platform, open sides and perhaps its larger than necessary size. Time will tell if this approach is successful.

Our plan is then to cut a large hole into one of the side 'blinkers' to permit the installation of a new Axis IP camera that will look back into the nest from a position relatively low down. We think this would give a more natural view of any nesting birds, and any installed camera could then also then be removed and adjusted if necessary (assuming birds are not actually nesting at the time). We have also purchased an analogue nest box camera which should let us feed images directly back to the TV we have installed in the tower's Clock Chamber for use by our project team and the cathedral staff. 

It took over two days simply to haul all
the tools and materials up the 189 tower steps!

Once construction is completed, our plan is then (weather permitting!) to abseil down and remove the sagging base from the old nest platform, whilst leaving the main framework still in place. This will prevent our pair of well-bonded peregrines (with its new female) from attempting to egg-lay there, and we hope that they will discover the alternative location we are providing for them.

If you look closely at the dark timbers of the roof boardwalk, you may spot that they are seriously decayed and dangerous for general visitors to walk upon. For safety reasons, Derby Cathedral cannot allow Tower Tours for the public. But later in 2026 they hope to have raised sufficient funds to replace the rotting wooden boardwalk over the lead-covered tower roof. For that reason, our new 'top box' can only be a temporary construction for 2026. If successful in encouraging our peregrines to nest this year, we will need to re-apply for permission for a more permanent replacement from 2027 onwards once the boardwalk has been replaced. If successful, we will then completely remove the old tower platform, and never have to abseil down there again. Now, wouldn't that be wonderful?

We welcome any contribution to help keep our Peregrine Project running.
Please donate via THIS LINK.
Thank you.

The Project Team
This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlfie Trust with great support from The Cathedral and from the City Council's IT team who help with connectivity.

Time for a change?

For twenty years now, peregrine falcons have nested on the east side of the ancient stone tower of Derby Cathedral. They use a wooden platform that we were given permission to install there back in April 2006, and which needed to be replaced in 2016. Late last year that replacement itself suffered a failure of its base, and we had to quickly remove all the loose stone and gravel into which the birds scrape their nest. 

The location of the platform, as you probably know, requires abseiling by experienced mountaineers who are also skilled in mounting and maintaining the web cameras which bring the live pictures to you. The project has been fortunate to have Nick Moyes (and his climbing buddy, Nick Evans) to perform these abseils every year. We have discussed how to ensure this structural failure can't happen again and concluded that completely redesigning and replacing the existing platform using new, longer lasting materials (with which we are not  familiar), and finding the necessary funding and construction expertise, will not be possible in the short time frame available before the forthcoming breeding season.

Looking around the UK, we see quite a few nest boxes placed on tops of buildings rather than half way down them - and for obvious reasons! Most sit directly on the rooftop itself, but these only work if there is no access or disturbance to the roof while the birds are nesting, something which isn't possible at Derby where flags have to be changed occasionally and routine inspections made. 

And then we encountered this video of an experimental nest box being installed on a church rooftop in Ramsgate. It is enclosed and faces out through one of the stonework's crenellations. Such a box, we thought, might well work for us too. So we decided to apply to the Cathedral authorities to allow us to install a similar box, albeit just as a temporary, emergency measure for this summer to ensure our birds don't move away or try to find somewhere else to nest in the city.

Our plan would be to site the box in the right hand crenellation above the platform when viewed from below - eventually with a camera installed somewhere within it.

After submitting our proposal and drawings to the Cathedral staff, we are delighted to say that they have agreed to our plans. The box will have to be 'temporary' for a number of reasons:

1. there is a chance the birds may not find and use it this summer;
2. the cathedral roof has major renovation works planned for late 2026;
3. the nest box will need to be moved or dismantled when roof works are undertake
4. we will need the further permission of the Cathedral's Fabric Committee for any 'tower top box' to become permanent.
5. we can learn from the construction of this temporary box and improve upon it if necessary.

Of course, if the birds don't adopt it, we'll simply have to go back again to installing a new, more resilient platform lower down for next year. But then we'll have the time to plan and fund it properly. But we are hopeful this alternative approach could offer a long term, easy-to-maintain solution that not only the birds, but also the Cathedral are happy with. It would avoid anyone having to abseil down twice a year for ringing and for maintenance, and ensure our Peregrine Project has a long-term future.

Meanwhile, once the new box has been constructed, we will abseil down to the old platform, check its condition and remove the old base to prevent any attempt at futile egg-laying. We will probably leave at least one camera in place to see what use the birds make of the remaining perch while they are hopefully nesting in the new box up above.

Peregrines are usually very 'site-faithful' and are always very keen to nest, so we are really hopeful that they will adopt the new 'top box' as they have done elsewhere in the UK. In terms of timing, the birds can adapt the time of egg laying to the situation in which they find themselves. In the first year (2006), the platform could not be installed until early April, and yet the birds nested successfully in it, quite some weeks later than in any subsequent year.
So while we will try to get a top box installed as soon as possible the abseil down to the old platform is even more dependent on the weather - and abseiler availability - and might take longer.

The necessary timber and materials have been ordered, and on 4/5th February was cut to size and then carried up to the highest room in the tower.  It's hoped we can start construction over the next week, depending upon the weather.

Please bear with us and remember that all the planning, blogging and construction is all being carried out by the volunteers who have worked on this project since it began, along with the recent addition of Jess, a very able abseiler and Chloe, who now rings any chicks for us.

It could be that our web cams will be down for a while during the work, but our priority has to be the nest box for the birds, rather than cameras for all our viewers. Rest assured we will keep you updated as and when we have news we can share.

Here's Nick Moyes' mock up of the new temporary box:

The box itself is designed to be set back slightly from the parapet to minimise its visual impact when viewed from the street below this Grade1 listed building.

A floor and side panels will link the box to the stonework, and will both prevent the birds inside from seeing people on the roof and visa versa. They will also prevent any chicks falling onto the roof. No drilling or other damage to the stonework will occur, of course. The back will be hinged and kept locked, but openable for ringing and maintenance. Having a box that doesn't require an abseil to reach it would make life so much easier! 

We are confident that the few very occasional visits by cathedral staff (eg to change the flags) will not disturb any incubating or brooding female inside the box if carried out quietly and quickly. There will be no public tower tours until the major renovation work to the roof is carried out towards the end of 2026.

Meanwhile, here's a video made by Wendy Barrter on 30th January showing the new pair bonding well. As you can see, any egg laid there now would simply roll away!

Finally, we hope to be able to install a camera inside the box in due course so that we can all see what's happening inside it. This inevitably has to be a lower priority than settings up  the new tower-top box itself. But we will do what we can, and as soon as we can.

If you would like to donate to support the work of the Peregrine Project, please use the 'Donate' tab, or click here.

The Peregrine Project Team 
This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with great support from The Cathedral and from the City Council's IT team.

One 'flu over the peregrine's nest

Update 5th January:
Wendy Bartter made this video today showing some really good bonding between the new pair:

 Original Post:

If you have read our two previous blog posts (here and here), you will be aware that our resident female peregrine falcon at the time was found dead on 12th December and that it was sent off for testing (and that a new female has arrived already to replace her).We have now been told by Defra that the dead female had indeed contracted bird flu, presumably picked up from one of its prey. 
Certainly we know that other urban peregrines have died from bird flu elsewhere in the UK (in Poole and Leicester for example).

Given the range and number of birds that peregrine falcons prey upon, this is not entirely unexpected. However, it may well be that some peregrines have built up a degree of immunity to the disease over time as have some other species. 

Although clearly this wasn't the case with our (former) female, let us hope the resident male and his new mate will not suffer the same fate. So far, so good.....

More than 50 bird species have been identified with bird flu in the UK this year and they include species which peregrine falcons take such as duck, gulls and woodcock and other wading birds.  At Derby, especially in autumn, we have found the remains of numerous woodcock over the years. These night migrants fly to the UK from Scandinavia, Poland and Russia each autumn after their breeding season. As they head inland from the east coast, we suspect they are drawn to the bright lights of our cities or follow rivers and other topographical features. 

                     A woodcock, one of thousands that fly to the UK for the winter.
                                    This one was killed by flying into a window.

Derby Cathedral tower is lit with upwards facing floodlighting, and of course Derby City itself is incredibly brightly lit at night. This makes it easy for the peregrines to spot these night migrants as they fly overhead and to fly out and grab them. 

In the winter of 2009, we managed to capture webcam footage of a live woodcock being brought back to the tower just before midnight one December evening where it was then despatched and left. It wasn't eaten until several days later but the weather at the time was very cold so it would have remained quite fresh!
The video of the live woodcock being brought back can be seen below but beware it is a little gory to watch:

 

Some readers might also be unaware that this 2009 video clip was a 'world first' - the first ever published video evidence of a peregrine falcon catching and killing live prey at night time. Read more here
 

Please scroll down to the previous blog post which updates you about the new female that has arrived.

The Project Team 

This Project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with The Cathedral and the IT Team at Derby City Council, and the Derby Cathedral Quarter as partners.

One week later...

After the sad news last week that our resident female had died, we wondered how long it would be before a new female turned up.

Today we got the answer - just one week!

I went down to Derby Cathedral on Saturday morning to take some measurements up on the tower. I went first to check out how the nest platform looked from below, and noticed our resident male sitting on top of one of the cameras, well out of range of both live webcams.

Suddenly, another larger peregrine swooped down from somewhere up above and flew out low across the nave roof. Shortly after, the male followed her, and they soared up and around the tower. I was transfixed watching them. Was he chasing her off, perhaps? Or were they a pair? When he dived at her a couple of times, with talons extended, I worried that he was indeed attacking her. But they continued to circle together around the tower a couple more times before flying off in different directions.

Shortly afterwards, both birds returned to our now rather forlorn-looking wooden nest platform on the the side of the bell tower. Our resident male returned to his favourite perch on top of one of our cameras, whilst the new female stood in the sagging bottom of the gravel-free ledge. Both remained there for a considerable amount of time.

In fact, I had sufficient time to make my way up to the top of the tower and very carefully poke a mobile phone over the crenellations and sneakily capture this image of the female looking up and the male just visible on the camera (at left). 

This is very encouraging news, and amazingly fast, and we can only hope this new female stays around for the forthcoming breeding season. We are, as you would expect, making plans to replace the nest platform, though this will inevitably take some time as we negotiate the best way forward.

Nick Moyes

Project Team

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.