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Monday, 5 May 2008

And Then There Were Three!

Three chicks have now hatched - just like in 2006, which was the first year our peregrines nested on the side of Derby Cathedral's Tower. The pictures below were taken at noon today, after Mum had sat on the chicks and eggs for so long that I suspect many of us thought we'd never get any work done. But a brief departure by the adult, followed by the male's arrival gave us the evidence we needed.

STOP PRESS: Someone over in Holland is doing an absolutely brilliant job of presenting our pictures in slideshow form! After viewing the pictures below, do please nip over to Froona's blog where she has built a special page containing over 100 pictures of today's feeding highlights from Derby (Are we jealous? Only slightly, but mostly grateful) We'll aim to bring you some video clips of this weekend's special events in the next 24 hours.





















A few minutes later a brief moment of feeding allowed us to capture this lovely close-up of our three new arrivals, before Mum returned to brood them and they were once again hidden from view.






Thanks to Veronica B. in Cornwall, we have a picture of the third chick taken around 09:53 this morning, showing the very wet new arrival. As with all our pictures, click to enlarge.

Webcam pages:
Because little is happening on the far side of the nest platform right now, I've changed our second webcam page to show just the tower camera, where we should be seeing the male on guard and preparing food for the chicks below. I hope this full sized picture meets with most people's approval, but we'll return to the multi-feed view in due course.

Follow these links to:

  • read an overview of the peregrine project,


  • add your name to our mailing list


  • find out about the brand new DVD: "The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral")


  • see many more pictures on Froona's very detailed blog over in Holland (both from our webcams and from many others around the world)
    • at

    31 comments:

    1. Anonymous5 May 2008 at 12:19

      Absolutely stunning, I have just been watching the three chicks feeding, what a priviledge :o)

      ReplyDelete
    2. Anonymous5 May 2008 at 12:20

      What a beautiful site to watch that feeding moments ago. Almost makes you want to start a family again.... I said almost.

      ReplyDelete
    3. Anonymous5 May 2008 at 12:25

      It's a shame we can't get this streamed :(

      ReplyDelete
    4. Anonymous5 May 2008 at 12:25

      A nifty bit of camera work there Nick!!

      Has anyone any idea what time the third egg hatched? I was watching at about 9.30 this morning and thought I saw the female reach under her breast and bring out another piece of shell.

      Andy M

      ReplyDelete
    5. Anonymous5 May 2008 at 12:51

      thats a much better view on tower cam thanks

      ReplyDelete
    6. Anonymous5 May 2008 at 13:06

      Andy, I captured a photo at 9.53am which I believe shows the third chick as it looks wet but I don't know how to post it here. Maybe Nick is able to go back over footage and check if anything is clearer. That was some fabulous zooming close ups earlier. I am really praying for the last egg to hatch and all four successfully fledging. Now I really must get some work done! Veronica

      ReplyDelete
    7. Anonymous5 May 2008 at 14:00

      These mid-day meals are producing some powerful sequences. To be able to share these early moments between parents and chicks is quite moving. They can teach us all something. A truly wonderful achievement, you should all be very proud.
      Sue, Allestree

      ReplyDelete
    8. Froona5 May 2008 at 16:19

      It is truely amazing to watch these very special birds of prey so close in their natural behaviour. Without disturbing them.

      There is still so little known about them and in this way, by webcams, we can learn. They show us who they are, what they do and why. How they react on certain circumstances.
      After this breedingseason I will have an enormous amount of data to update,finish and translate my website about this special creature. Much better and detailed info than watching them in the field.
      Thank you all who make it possible to watch them this great way.
      Froona

      ReplyDelete
    9. Anonymous5 May 2008 at 17:21

      Around 17.15 I tuned in and saw the three delightful chicks alone, suddenly one of the parents appeared with food! might have been a mouse, not really sure though. It was great to watch them being fed.

      ReplyDelete
    10. Anonymous5 May 2008 at 17:29

      And THANK YOU FROONA for your wonderful informative website. The photo sequences are amazing and hundreds of people who don't have time to continually watch the cams rely on you for the latest news.
      It is such a joy to share these passions openly.
      I just watched a feeding (5.15pm) and we have three hungry healthy eyases. It was very hard to tell which one was the youngest.
      Veronica in Cornwall

      ReplyDelete
    11. Anonymous5 May 2008 at 18:02

      I agree with the above comment a great web site lots of phots and updates i have been watching these peregrines every day but i was away for a few days to come back and see YES WE HAVE 3 CHICKS WOW WOW WOW WOW i am so happy i have watched them being fed today and its moving to say the least im local to derby a 5 min walk from my house..The dedication of these parent birds is bar far the greatest thing i have ever seen.
      Richard.....

      ReplyDelete
    12. Anonymous5 May 2008 at 20:23

      20.29 webcam time and mum is feeding the three chicks

      ReplyDelete
    13. Anonymous5 May 2008 at 20:31

      babes were left a few minutes ago and I could only see chicks. has number 4 hatched or were the chicks covering the fourth egg up?

      ReplyDelete
    14. Anonymous5 May 2008 at 20:50

      No the 4th egg has still not hatched.The little chicks were covering it up,but it was lovely to see the chicks having there feed.

      ReplyDelete
    15. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 03:06

      Can anyone please tell me how to save these pictures as they happen I am watching most of the things happen live but have no idea how to save them. Thanks for any help you can give me. Ann maritime_lovers@hotmail.com

      ReplyDelete
    16. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 05:11

      I love the views that this camera gives and even better with the two enlarged camera views. Froona's blog is brilliant. I discovered it a little while ago and she must put so much into this site. It contains updates on so many Peregrine nests from all over the world. BRILLIANT.

      ReplyDelete
    17. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 08:05

      To capture the pictures, hold down the ALT key and press the Print Screen key. Then open a graphics program like MS Paint, Gimp, etc and type CTRL-V to paste the captured screen shot. Then you can crop the saved image to save only the webcam photo, discarding the rest of the screen shot.

      Hope that helps.

      ReplyDelete
    18. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 08:20

      Saving screenshots

      With my set up you just hit the print screen key. This dumps a screenful onto the clipboard. You then open your favourite graphics package (Even MS Paint will do at a push), click the edit key and click paste. This pastes the screen image into your graphics package and you can then crop and edit it to your hearts content.

      ReplyDelete
    19. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 08:34

      Two extra points - don't forget to save as jpeg (JPG) not bitmap (BMP) as these files are huge.

      I don't think the project people appreciate pictures that are larger than 100kb each.

      You can open Word and then paste succesive screenshots into it, but this doesn't make such neat and small files - but it's quick.

      ReplyDelete
    20. tm6 May 2008 at 10:20

      Breakfast for the 3 eyases. Pics here:

      http://tm-telsblog.blogspot.com/

      ReplyDelete
    21. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 10:28

      Thanks tm...lovely photos. I missed that feeding. I'm hoping to see a pip in that last egg. Veronica

      ReplyDelete
    22. tm6 May 2008 at 10:46

      I hope so, too :)

      ReplyDelete
    23. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 11:27

      Was fantastic looking at the 3 little ones this morning and could also see the egg. Hope the latter hatches, what chance is there of this happening? Keep up the good work with the pictures Thanks S

      ReplyDelete
    24. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 11:52

      DERBY will always be the original and best for me - but a friend has just told me that Worcester has peregrines too. She heard the news on the radio this morning. Here's a website link http://www.rspb.org.uk/brilliant/sites/worcester/index.asp
      Isn't it great - peregrines seem to be having a small population explosion at the moment. Mankind must be doing something right for once.
      Sue H, Bucks

      ReplyDelete
    25. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 13:00

      Thank you so very much to those who have explained how to save the pictures I see. Just hope I can figure it out. Happy viewing everyone and let hope that last egg survives.

      ReplyDelete
    26. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 14:47

      what are the chances of the last egg hatching?It would make my day for this to happen i just so hope it does hatch.

      ReplyDelete
    27. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 16:37

      I feel it is looking unlikely now that the last egg will hatch. Mum or the chicks appears to have moved the egg to the side ( don't know if this is significant or not). Whilst it would be great to have 4 chicks I think we would all agree how well the parents have done to hatch 3 under some very wet and cold conditions this spring.

      ReplyDelete
    28. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 16:54

      I messed up my blog at 4:30 - but I noted that there were 3 little chicks and egg no 4 all unattended so I guessed egg 4 won't hatch now .... but THREE, hey, that's brilliant. A 50% increase on last year!
      Sue H, Bucks

      ReplyDelete
    29. tm6 May 2008 at 16:55

      Feeding time again

      ReplyDelete
    30. Anonymous6 May 2008 at 17:21

      That looks a large lunch even by peregrine standards. It was fed to the chicks and is now being eaten on the top by one of the adults.

      ReplyDelete
    31. Froona6 May 2008 at 19:24

      4 Feedings of today in about 200 pics/slideshow on my Blog.

      http://falcoperegrinus-froona.blogspot.com/2008/05/derby-morning-feeding-at-1000.html

      Or click my name and you're being redirected

      They grow pretty quick and doing very well indeed. It's great to watch both adults with their chicklets.

      Froona

      ReplyDelete