Sunday 12 May 2013

Number three cracks open - and an update

The third egg cracked open this morning (Sunday) about 9 am, spotted first by Helen, Luciana and Nikki. Egg shell was certainly apparent though we await a view of the chick itself. Screen grabs by Nikki and Helen are below showing the egg cracking and then the broken and empty egg shell.
(If you missed the egg-citement over Nos. 1 and 2, please scroll down to earlier posts!)



Here's a double video retrieved our from our recording equipment inside the Cathedral tower yesterday. The first half shows Saturday's two chicks being fed; the second half shows how the falcon nibbles away at the discarded shell, presumably returning lost calcium to her system. 
 UPDATE: Monday morning and still only three chicks.......so will the last one hatch? We'll have to wait and see. Incidentally, the eggs laid this year were the female's 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st in her lifetime. Of those 31, two failed to hatch in 2007 and so she's hatched 28 so far...with one yet to emerge this time around.




And, as if to celebrate the new birth, Derby's bells rang out last Sunday, captured here on video and sent to use via Twitter from 'Mroozed'

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Recent Comments from schools:
We've logged on this morning and couldn't wait to see what has happened over the weekend.... 3 chicks!!! Come on number 4 we're waiting and wishing  (2M at Gorsefield Primary School, Radcliffe, Manchester)




We were very happy to sea more chicks haching. at dinner time we saw the first three chicks they were cudling up to each other whyle the feemale fed them. The feemale put little bits of meat in thire beeK.There little wings are very flapy. We think the other egg will hatch soon.The chicks were pushing in to the line to get there food. the peregrin has to sit on them because they onley have little fethers to keep them warm.  (Green Class, Brigg Infants, S Normanton, Derbyshire)

27 comments:

Joy said...

great news. Aren't Stream 1 & 4 the same? Confused

Caroline said...

Thanks for the video team! Just watched a feed. Chick 3 got a bit every now and again at the back. As I recall the later hatching chicks do "catch up" as there is sufficient food to go round one way or another over time. Interesting to see how determined Chick 3 was in spite of being recently hatched. The sound track this year really helps one hear how much the parents chirrup to the chicks when food arrives and how the chicks sing in return.

Caroline said...

I posted 2 pics of the feed on Flickr but they came out out of focus. My fault in the upload somewhere. I'm rusty re using Flickr. You can see chick 3 getting a feed though. Some great screen grabs of the recent hatching - thanks to others who are more adept.

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

Joy, Streams 1 and 4 may look the same, but they are different.

Stream 1 changes every 6 seconds. It runs continuously, but with no soundtrack. It's great for background watching for a long time in schools or at home.

Stream 4 is live with audio. You get 8 minutes of viewing/listening before you need to refresh the page to watch again.

Some Streams play better on some bits of IT kit than others do. For example Apple users will need to load up PuffinBrowser if they want to watch Streams 1 or 2. Stream 4 should play ok for them (but I can't view that on my HTC Smartphone, whereas all the other streams play OK)

So we are trying to give you the best of all worlds. Stream 4 is quite expensive to run, so probably won't operate in the same form once the chicks have hatched. We will listen to our webcam watchers and decide what streams to keep or remove after this breedng season is over.

Bottom Line:
Streams 1 & 2 6 second changes, no sound, continuous play.

Streams 3 & 4 live video, with sound. c10 minute timeout

Joy said...

Nick M thanks for enlightening me. Great to watch this year

liz said...

Hi, Stream 3 does not seem to be working on my PC today it comes up at 14.52.

Liz

Helen said...

Wonderful to watch the chicks being fed a few minutes ago. The adult bird takes such care to make sure that they each get their fair share. All three chicks looking very floppy and content after they've had their fill!

Kate said...

Hi Helen
Yes I just tuned in and captured that feed, just adorable to see them so vulnerable..
Cam kept jamming and three was static , whilst No 4 showed the feeding.
16.46.25
Kate

Liz said...

Tea Time. The food looked like a chicken? but the meat was too red. 12/5/13. 16:41 pics on Flikr

Roger said...

For reference, the live feed to the display in the Cathedral Shop window appeared to have frozen when I looked this morning and
Webcam stream 3 also appears to have frozen today at 14:52:55.

Liz said...

Mmmmm.... supper time.... 12th May 2013 19.01 Pics on Flickr

Kate said...

All three fed 07.48
Lovely jubbly Ah!

Liz said...

13th May 2013 9:21 am Fourth egg not hatched yet. Pic on Flckr

Green Class said...

we were very happy to sea more chicks haching. at dinner time we saw the first three chicks they were cudling up to each other whyle the feemale fed them. The feemale put little bits of meat in thire beeK.There little wings are
very flapy. We think the other egg
will hatch soon.The chicks were pushing in to the line to get there food. the peregrin has to sit on them because they onley have little fethers to keep them warm.

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

Hello Green Class!

Thank you once ago for telling us what you saw in class today.
I was watching, too, and it was lovely to see how careful the adult peregrine feeds her tiny, flappy chicks.

They really are going to start putting on weight now. I bet you'll soon start to think they are really greedy. But remember, they've only got six weeks before they have to leave home.

How much more growing up does everyone in your class think they'll need to do before you are all old enough to leave home and look after yourself? Is it days, weeks, months or years?

Liz said...

Hi I saw the egg, the chick has not hatched yet. 13/5/13 18:00

Liz said...

Feeding time 18:40

Anonymous said...

Hi Nick,

Do you have a good guess when the other egg is going to hatch?

How long will the chicks stay with their parents at the cathedral?

What sort of birds do falcons eat?

thanks,

Charlotte (Holmesdale Infants)

Nick B (DWT) said...

Hi Charlotte: here are my answers for you:
We would hope the last egg will hatch within the next 24 hours but we will all have to wait and see if it does. There is a possibility that it won't hatch, that there is some problem with it - but let's just see what happens.
The chicks grow fast and should be flying within six to seven weeks from hatching. The parenst teach them to hunt and then the youngster gradually move away from Derby, usually by the end of August if not before.
Falcons will eat any bird as long as it is not heavier than they are. At Derby we have identified over 50 different species of bird (and one rat). Ducks, wading birds, doves and pigeons, crows, magpies, jays, woodpeckers, thrushes and even smaller birds have been on the falcon's menu.
Hope that helps.
Nick B (DWT)

Anonymous said...

The statistic of 28 hatched eggs is just amazing when you stop and think about it. If you accept that it is every living creature's mission to replace itself, then the Derby birds have excelled (or do I mean "egg"selled? - sorry) themselves.
On the list of prey items, I'm not sure that we in Aylesbury have recorded as many as 50 yet, but we have a record of another mammal - a pipistrelle bat. You wouldn't really have thought one of those would have been worth a peregrines's time, they are truly tiny, about as much as in our terms eating a single crisp? But th peregrines seem opportunistic and never pass up the chance of a feed.

Helen said...

I am beginning to think that the fourth chick might be hatching. There is a lot of movement and wriggling around by the falcon.

Helen said...

Yep, number four hatching right now!!

Helen said...

Falcon eating the egg shell now. Yippee, a full house! Brilliant news.

Phoebe said...

Hi all, I have been away and got back to find my internet was down! It got fixed today so I missed all the action.

Just looked at the cams and see egg shell, I take it the fourth egg has hatched.

Well done!

christine said...

Number 4 egg has hatched! From christine! X

Liz said...

Breakfast four four chicks. 14th May 2013 6:18 am

Mo Cole said...

Morning people.... Just say yipeeeeee a full house ... Well done Mr and Mrs P..... Mo Cole x