Another cold, windy day with showers too. Arriving at the cathedral I was greeted by an enormous queue of people which encircled the cathedral - could they have come to see our birds? Sadly not. They were waiting to board some 90 coaches for the big football match at Wembley this afternoon!
Meanwhile, we watched the female pluck some prey and feed it to the chicks. The male joined her on the platform briefly, as viewers of the webcam between 10-11am may have seen. Later, he flew off, making a very distinct alarm call at another male peregrine which was circling the tower high up. Was this an intruder or perhaps the young male from last year's brood?
While on the Green, we met a man who was filming his grandchildren fishing on the river nearby two weeks ago. He spotted a great spotted woodpecker flying upstream which he started to film. To his amazement, it was chased and eventually caught by the male peregrine right in front of his eyes! He managed to capture the whole event on film and we hope he'll lend us a copy so we can share this observation with you....
Peregrine Falcons first nested on Derby's Cathedral, England, in 2006. Our Peregrine Project is now run by a partnership between Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, Derby City Council, Derby Cathedral and the Cathedral Quarter. Here is what's happening in 2024. . .
6 comments:
Can you tell me if you will be rinding this years chicks and if so when will that be? sam bull derby
we have been watching the chicks testing their wings today and were suprised to see they hasve swapped sides in the box.
What may seem really niave question is why arent the birds frightened off by the cathedral bells? Most birds would not be seen for dust by the noise they can make and from such a close proximity!! Look forward to an explanation
Thanks
I love watching your little Peregrine's as they grow. I stop by several times during my work day.
Tom
Norfolk, Virginia
USA
As you'll now have seen, the chicks were ringed on Friday 1st June.
With regard to noise - the birds are totally indifferent to it, even on a Sunday when they are rung constantly, and are glorious to hear.
Birds are only frightened by the unusual. They become accustomed to noises that they don't associate with risk. They are simply ignored by the peregrines and all the feral pigeons that live around the tower.
Speaking from personal experience, I can say that the bells are incredibly loud and quite startling when you hear them from the nest platform. But you get used to them!
does any one know where the perigrins feeding ground is becuase every time i go into derby i look up to see if i can see one of the parents out hunting so please can any one answer my question? if you want to contact me with your answer my email address is jon_titterton@yahoo.co.uk
The birds rarely hunt right over the town centre, but seem to move off in various directions, often a mile or two along the river corridor. We know they hunt over Pride Park and Alvaston, but we've had reports of them hunting in various other parts of the city outskirts.
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