This morning around 08.20 or earlier, the fourth egg was laid so full incubation will now be underway. Wendy Bartter's video is below:
And here's a screen grab:
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| And then there were four! |
Third egg story:
At 22.35 pm last night (Sunday 9th) egg number three appeared, duly watched by several people on the web cams.
Wendy Bartter has come up trumps again with a video:in which you first see that there are indeed three eggs at 22.42 pm:
So the final egg (assuming she lays her normal clutch of four) will appear sometime on Wednesday if the usual interval applies.
And here's a screen grab taken by Ann Foster showing all three:
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| Infra red photo showing three eggs taken by Ann Foster |
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| The three eggs show up well in this sunny screenshot by Kate |
Thanks to everyone who was watching and alerting us to what was happening...and a special thanks also to Lynda O who has just sent us a generous donation, the latest in a sequence of donations over the years! If you wanted to follow Lynda's example, please click on the donations tab above.
The Project Team
32 comments:
Well done Mrs P you've come up trumps yet again despite all adversities this year. Thanks Wendy for a great capture enabling us to pinpoint the exact time the eggs are laid,I don't know what we'd do without you. Has anyone any iideas what to call the new tiercel, should we still refer to him as "Mr P" (seems a bit disrespectful to the late departed bird who gave us so much viewing pleasure over the years).? But the cycle of life continues so perhaps it's ok, or should we stick to falcon and tiercel?
Many thanks Nick for your comprehensive answer regarding the ringing etc, clearly my theory regarding the eggs being kept cool was way off the mark, nothing new there then!
Brilliant news, I missed the second egg and now missed the third egg!
Mr P is settling in very nicely.
Hi Heather, you are very welcome ... it is my pleasure to share with all on this site the vids which I so enjoy capturing, charting the progress of these lovely birds! I caught up with Kate on RSPB Derby thread in 2014 & followed ever since, was great because the cams were available all year round so really got to know the birds & their habits over a long period, all so very absorbing & gradually progressed from comments to screen captures to vids & this blog site!
Looking forward to fourth egg & hoping that will complete their clutch for this year ... we shall see!!
Morning all
Mrs P been sitting very tight on the Eggs.
My first sight a short while ago of all three Eggs as flew for a short comfort break.I have uploaded some pics on FLKR Derby Group
Great capture Kate, thanks!
Was down at Cathedral at lunchtime watching the tiercel do a few practice loops and giving some passing pigeons a nasty shock. What surprised me though was that quite a few birds were resting on various parts of the tower. I would have expected them to not have been present given a predator so close.
Peter, I think that because peregrines take their prey in flight, which requires a lot of space, any birds that are in the immediate vicinity of the tower are relatively safe. Last year there was a mistle thrush nesting close by on the cathedral, and the previous year there was even a wood pigeon nesting on the stonework directly below the peregrine platform. On both occasions the birds successfully raised young. Perhaps they are even safer with a top predator keeping other possible predators away!
Morning all
Change over 07.11:21 Pics on FlkR Derby Group (link above on Quick links)
Just reminding all my egg-watching friends that if there's to be a 4th egg, it should arrive sometime today. Who'll spot it first?
Four eggs!
So exciting to be able to watch egg laying in action! Fairly sure the time was 08.19. Amazing!
Great news thanks Helen, will check footage soonest to see if I have it!
Fantastic Helen so pleased you saw the egg laid, tis truly amazing and privelidged we are
Love your Pics on FLKR Thank you. Nice to see while we wait for our Wendy's vid...
Hope fully we stop at four....
Thanks Helen for alerting us to exact time of fourth egg being laid and I'm sure Wendy will be able to check it out once she's examined the footage. I don't think in all the years I've been watching I've been lucky enough to actually see one single egg being laid. Well done Mr & Mrs P and now the long wait begins - unless she surprises us with some more as has happened at other sites! However, it's very unlikely as 4 is normal for her and I think she's done very well this year all things considered and dare I say it, excuse the pun, "she's no spring chicken"!
Thanks Kate, Wendy and Heather. It was more luck than judgement!It was really interesting to see how she gathered all the other eggs together beforehand to make sure she was in the right position for the fourth one being laid.
You had the time spot on Helen which made it easier for me to locate ... this is a less than perfect vid though as a message regarding my Bro & a medical emergency(all OK now) flashed up on screen just moments before & caused me to jig the screen out of line ... thank goodness for the sound ...
https://youtu.be/nZKvBZqWijs
Well done Mrs p and her new toy boy!! Fantastic news with a full clutch ?
I had my doubts for a while but isn't nature a wonderful thing..
Can't wait for the little fluffy white bundles to emerge.. Here's to incubation!!
Well done Wendy I would miss some of this seasons action if were not for your vids, thankyou.
Thanks Karen, pleasure to share ... little additional vid showing that brief reveal of the four eggs as pic above but different cam ...
https://youtu.be/EENUoDZCSlM
Congrats to the P's and a question...Wendy posted a video the other day of new Mr P bringing prey and apparently mating.
Could this mean more eggs, or perhaps Mrs p has laid some infertile eggs?
Would she eat or otherwise discard infertile eggs?
If she has infertile eggs how late can she lay and raise the babies to fledging?
So many questions with the change of tiercel, sorry if I missed them answered in a previous blog.
Am sure Nick B will answer all your questions soon Ren!
ITM, a few highlights of our pair's first FOUR EGG day ... (no sound unfortunately!)
https://youtu.be/eSkyq0_PJig
Morning all
Mrs P sitting quietly this morning.
@ren13.. a good place to read information while you wait for a specific answer, is clicking tabs across the top of Page , particularly FAQ ,has loads of info with chart of previous egg lay dates and Hatching.
Hope this will help.
I dont think they know themselves the are infertile? Humans can find out by candling them. In home kept birds you can remove eggs ( either fertile and incubate or because they are infertile) and theres a chance you will get a second clutch that same season ( some breeders do this for more babies). If the eggs are left and infertile i dont believe a 2nd clutch will be laid.
@ren13
I would not be too concerned to see further mating. In Peregrines, as with many species, mating can also be a way of establishing and maintaining a 'pair bond' between the birds. With this being a new partnership we may see it more often this year.
Antony P
13/4/17 6pm Delighted to return home after a short trip away, have access to the Internet, and see the "stop press" comment from the Project Team "4th egg laid, full incubation therefore commences". To be optimistically pedantic, full incubation starts with the penultimate or final egg and we don't know yet if the the 4th is either of these 2 things. I have to concede that it's pretty likely though as it's the original female and she has a long track record as a "4-egger". Really pleased at the news though!
Mrs DP bearing the brunt of long incubation hours overnight & this morning ...
https://youtu.be/AHSo88wH1dw
Afternoon changeovers ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-C60puC4Fw
Evening one is long as it's quite fascinating watching her get him off the eggs ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmgtjlV02zM
Happy to see the four eggs. Last year we had one hatch on Easter Sunday or maybe the year before. I am ready to spend time in front of the computer and enjoying what I see. Quiet right now. She is sitting and nodding off.
Vicki Hi: I don't thing we have had any hatching in April so perhaps you meant egg laying at Easter which certainly has happened in several years. You can see the whole chart of dates from 2006 onwards on the FAQs page using the tab on the home page.
Things will now be very quiet during incubation but don't let that stop you watching!
A slightly rainy morning here in Derby today (Good Friday)....we've not had significant rain for quite a while.
Nick B
Now that the Derby peregrines have reached the incubation stage, we watchers will likely find long periods of boring watching interspersed with great excitement when something interesting occurs (such as waiting for the hatch!) Can I suggest one thing to watch out for could be noting the return of another iconic "urban" species - SWIFTS! They are the last summer visitors to return (and will be the first to depart at the end of summer) and you can probably set your watch by them - they often return to their ancestral sites on exactly the same date. There is a webcam at the Oxford Natural History Museum which is switched on when the swifts are back (it was 4th May in 2016) The web address is here http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/swifts.htm Derby has its own swift experts, if interested you can find out more here http://www.swift-conservation.org/ As peregrines are the fastest birds in the air in a stoop, so swifts are the fastest in level flight. However, our peregrines still manage to catch a few, what magnificent hunters they are.
First changeover of 14th after Mum had been incubating all night since 22.30 ...
https://youtu.be/mO7fL2E_MpE
Last of changeovers showing still four eggs @ 16.48 ...
https://youtu.be/ZGwPZRgU7mY
Hi all. Nick you are right I meant we had an egg laid on Easter Sunday. I am looking forward to watching the wee ones hatch and start feeding. We always feel like one isn't getting as much as the others but they all grow and eventually fly. Any sightings of last years group? I will miss the old Mr P.
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