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 now been ordered, and it's hoped that we can start work this coming week, depending upon the weather. Please bear with us and remember that all the planning and blogging about this is 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.

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.