It's wonderful to see and hear our two adult peregrine falcons in their annual courtship routine in advance of this coming nesting season. They will both fly to the nest site, face one another, with the much larger female calling loudly in an "ee-chupp, ee-chupp" manner. This may go on for a minute or more, and eventually the smaller male will eventually fly off, to human eyes seeming rather intimidated by her over-bearing presence. There she may remain at the nest site, for quite some time afterwards, giving us confidence that the building work below them has not put off this year's attempt to breed.
Once again Wendy Bartter has captured this lovely footage from our live webcam whilst watching from home at 5pm yesterday in fading daylight. You see them both arrive and then, 3mins 30secs into the video the tiercel (i.e. the male peregrine) flies off, leaving her alone and silent on the platform except for the ringing of the 5 o'clock cathedral bells.
This clip gives us a chance not only to compare the sizes of the two birds, but also to show how the very wide angle of our camera lens can itself lead to confusion. Close to the lens, she looks enormous; farther away she seems so much smaller - and this often causes us difficulties in determining whether it's the male or female when we just see the one bird in view.
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. . .
3 comments:
We are so very very lucky that Wendy, gives so much of her time, not only to Derby, but several other sites.Our still captures only tell us so much, it is then when we can see the Video we begin to realise how much more interaction there are between the Tiercel and the Falcon.
Thank you so much Wendy, and know we both cant wait for the other Cams to come on stream.
Thank you also to Derby Team for such wonderful work you all do, we also appreciate being able to converse on this BLOG.Together with all the archive and FAQ etc.
Mrs DP was on the scrape very briefly this afternoon on her own & my recording gear malfunctioned ... but Kate got a screencapture which I hope she will post on Flickr!
This footage is from her visit yesterday ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnM269L4vbk
Thanks Kate for your kind words!
What a lovely video! It shows how little the birds are affected by the work being carried out on the Cathedral which will be good if it continues once the roof alterations start.
Many grateful thanks to all those concerned in bringing the beautiful birds nearer to us.
Anne in Allestree
Post a Comment