Wednesday 30 May 2007

Anyone smell a rat?

Someone walking along Queen Street near the cathedral this morning about 07.30am heard a commotion and saw what he took to be a peregrine carrying a largish mammal with a long tail. The only likely mammal in the area fitting that description is the brown rat...did anyone see any prey brought to the chicks on the webcams this morning looking like a mammal? Please leave a comment or email enquiries@derbyshirewt.co.uk.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The chicks seem to be getting much more active now, lots of wing flapping etc. They seem to look MUCH bigger, is that real, or the effect of fluffy feathers?
So, I wondered when they start feeding themselves with the food the adults bring back?

Anonymous said...

Why is it that one chick is so much more active than the other? Is it older? Is it female? (are you able to guess the sex from size/ behaviour?)Is that just how it is?

Peregrine Project Member (Nick M.) said...

The ringing event on Friday 1st June (see entries for that day)showed that both birds are females. They certainly are growing rapidly - it's not just a visual effect! In fact, had the ringers delayed by more than a day or two, the two chicks would have become too aggressive to pick up and ring safely.

Look back at our earlier entries around May 10th and you'll see that both chicks hatched very close to one another, and have grown rapidly. They should be able to fly in another couple of weeks or so. Before that they will start showing interest in feeding for themselves, but it's a case of watching the webcams to see exactly when this happens.