First a rather delightful photo from Poznan in Poland showing four peregrine chicks in a whicker basket nest placed high on a building in the town. Photo courtesy of Ed Drewitt.
Then, the nest box on Lincoln Cathedral (right).
Can you just make out the brown coloured nest platform at the base of the right hand 'window'? It's in a rather similar position to ours in Derby.
If my memory serves me correctly, this pair failed this year though I don't recall why.
The church on the left is St. Michael's in Exeter.
Originally a pair of ravens built a nest of sticks on the external ledge just where the spire begins.
A pair of peregrines ousted the ravens and nested there themselves. However, the nest was unstable and it was decided to replace it with a wooden construction which resembled the raven's nest in that it was made of logs round the outside.
A web cam was placed close to the nest and it was this site that gave us in Derby the inspiration to do something similar here in Derby. Nick Dixon, who was intimately involved with the Exeter site, was extremely helpful to us in those early days, providing us with a nest platform design and masses of valuable advice.
Finally, a photo (left) of the recently sited platform in Aylesbury which had a web cam focused down on the nest last summer when two young were raised. Thanks to Sue H for information about this site.
To see a recent regional TV clip about this site click on http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/story/2012-11-30/world-famous-peregrine-falcons\ .
Nick B (DWT)
Thanks for these lovely links, Nick. It's great to be reminded of peregrine happenings of 2012. It wasn't all plain sailing, the weather was (and continues) so freakish in 2012, I'm sure it had far-reaching adverse effects. Derby peregrines did so well to raise 4 young, did your wise birds somehow know when they started late with the first egg on March 29th? This contrasts with Lincoln where the first egg was laid a good week earlier, on 21st March. Lincoln had a final clutch size of 4 eggs. Incubation took place down a slope from the platform that can be seen in the images, inside the building. It is thought that the cold and wet put paid to the eggs at Lincoln; perhaps the water pooled and chilled the eggs? The great storm of the weekend of 29th April was a blow to much of the natural world in general and peregrines in particular - who will forget the images that we saw from Nottingham (see the blog archive below) At Aylesbury, we had 3 eggs but only 2 hatched. I see no reason to suppose that an aberation occurred making one egg of the three infertile. I think it far more likely that the adverse weather chilled that third egg.
ReplyDeleteOf course, there are so many more urban peregrines that Nick could mention - eg at least 30 pairs in London alone! Several more have webcams, such as at Norwich, and of course, we all would have watched "Bath" on Springwatch.
I still want to watch the webcams to see when the first signs of breeding start - the scraping and "ee-chupping". I have to be a bit more patient at my own Aylesbury as the revamped website is not quite ready yet, but hopefully soon will be.
Meantime, a wonderful winter pastime last year was to watch white tailed eagles on this website http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/ I hope they will switch to the eagles soon, but in the meantime, there are grey seals to watch.
Good peregrinations everyone!
13:45 hrs Mon 3/12/12 peregrine on the platform edge (side furthest from Jury's)
ReplyDeleteWe lookt at all the pikchs of the peregrine falcons.we played I spiy to find the nest platform on one of the pickchers. it was quit hard. we liked the chicks in the basckit. we coud see there big yellow feet. we can,t see eny peregrine falcons on the cameras to day. we will ceap looking.
ReplyDelete09:25 Sat 8/12/12 Some early signs of breeding activity. One bird scraping at the gravel. Both birds present in the vicinity - sorry, when they were both on the platform, I was trying to add a comment but was on my second best PC in the kitchen and lost sight of exactly what was happening!
ReplyDeleteupon refelection, later view seems to show that food has been delivered? - one bird looks as if it's manipulating prey parts (a claw)
ReplyDeleteWell done Green Class! You must have looked very carefully at the pictures. Both peregrines were visible on the cameras this morning so you are sure to see them soon.
ReplyDeleteI agree, well done Green Class. I don't think I would have been able to find Lincoln's platform without some clues. Nick B made it too easy for you with the Aylesbury platform though. It's quite hard to see from the pavement and you would be surprised just how many people down in the town have no idea what is going above their heads. As Sara says, the Derby birds have spent quite a bit of time on their platform over the weekend. The weatherman says bad weather is coming, I wonder what effect, if any, this will have on the birds? The best time to look for them on the platform at the moment though seems to be the mornings.
ReplyDelete