Earlier this week we were delighted to be permitted to go up inside the tower to check on our own favourite birds of prey after a gap of over 3 months. Many of us have missed being able to watch the online antics of our pair of nesting wild peregrine falcons as they courted, laid eggs and reared their young.
We were deeply frustrated by not having been able to connect up our webcameras before the lockdown kicked in (as explained here), so we knew we'd have to rely on the reports of those able to view from the street below.
But something else occurred this year, too...
It was hard to be sure when it happened, but reports started to come in suggesting we had lost our old and reliable female falcon to a new, younger model. Local naturalist, Anthony Pooles, kept an eye on the Cathedral for us as he travelled to his job as a 'keyworker'. He began to conclude (see here) that the falcon had been replaced by a new, younger female, and that she might be incubating, albeit on the other side of the nest platform than usual.
Unable to see into the nest, we had no idea if egg-laying had occurred, or they'd failed to hatch, or if chicks had died. Then, in late May we concluded that this new female had probably not laid eggs.
So, finally, we can confirm and reveal at least some of what has been going on. Despite not being connected to the web this year, our cameras are set to trigger to record to an internal memory card when movement on the nest platform is detected. The oldest recordings get overwritten once the card is full, so it was a rush to retrieve them as soon as we could. As I connected up my laptop and accessed the internal recordings, I found we had over 900 short video clips, but only going as far back as 20th April.
By that date, eggs would normally have been laid and incubation well underway, and with hatching anticipated for early May. But the picture below shows what we found on Monday 29th June.
It revealed a pristine nest platform, with no signs of eggs, chicks or much activity at all. So what happened?
Reviewing the saved video clips, it seems our male peregrine falcon (with a small silver ring on his left leg) is now enchanted with a sub-mature adult female, and they have been courting one another all through April, May and June. We've seen food swaps, lots and lots (and lots) of head-bowing and eechupping. But the male has a slate grey-coloured back, whilst this new female still seems quite brown on top, despite her horizontal breast bars. For all my years with this project, I'm no expert on the peregrines' appearance once they've left their nest sites as we rarely see them again. But to me she looks like she is just coming into adulthood, so presumably a 2nd-year bird, and not quite ready to raise a family.
So, finally, we can confirm and reveal at least some of what has been going on. Despite not being connected to the web this year, our cameras are set to trigger to record to an internal memory card when movement on the nest platform is detected. The oldest recordings get overwritten once the card is full, so it was a rush to retrieve them as soon as we could. As I connected up my laptop and accessed the internal recordings, I found we had over 900 short video clips, but only going as far back as 20th April.
By that date, eggs would normally have been laid and incubation well underway, and with hatching anticipated for early May. But the picture below shows what we found on Monday 29th June.
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| Nest platform on Derby Cathedral as seen on 29th June. |
It revealed a pristine nest platform, with no signs of eggs, chicks or much activity at all. So what happened?
Reviewing the saved video clips, it seems our male peregrine falcon (with a small silver ring on his left leg) is now enchanted with a sub-mature adult female, and they have been courting one another all through April, May and June. We've seen food swaps, lots and lots (and lots) of head-bowing and eechupping. But the male has a slate grey-coloured back, whilst this new female still seems quite brown on top, despite her horizontal breast bars. For all my years with this project, I'm no expert on the peregrines' appearance once they've left their nest sites as we rarely see them again. But to me she looks like she is just coming into adulthood, so presumably a 2nd-year bird, and not quite ready to raise a family.
But, boy, have they been trying!
The video clips our camera has captured show a well-bonded pair, going through the familiar routines of food-swapping, head bowing and eee-chupping towards one another with their heads bowed.
You can see this in the two clips below, captured on 24th April and 28th April (note the ring on the male's left leg in the second one).
But what has been surprising is that this courtship continued into May, and on through June...
and right up until 28th June, as below:
It seems probable this prolonged courtship display will continue for a little while yet, though it's far too late in the season for this new pair to lay this year. But what does seem likely is that they will bond well during 2020 and start a new, successful breeding partnership in 2021.
It has been a frustrating time for everyone, from hopeful webcam watchers on the other side of the world, to your own Project Team here in Derby. In one sense, their failure to breed means we haven't missed much with our webcams not being online this season, but in a far greater extent it seems we've missed a considerable amount!
Nick M
for the Peregrine Project Team
7 comments:
What's most likely happened to the displaced female peregrine, do they end up finding a new mate.
Wonderful, wonderful footage Nick ... how great to see the well-loved & much missed nest site & listen to their vocalising as they bond! She is the third sub-adult I've seen this year, at Sussex Heights there is a new one who is less overall brown but not yet all grey & surprisingly produced two very healthy youngsters! The female at Rochdale, very brown, still has striped chest & generally considered to be too young to breed but went on to hatch & rear two robust females, one of whom looks pretty much like her!
If you get that elusive key are you considering live-streaming at all this year ... be good to have an opportunity to chart the progress of this pair into next season?
We simply don't know what happened to our original falcon. We believe it has always been the same bird since peregrines arrived in Derby in 2005/2006. She might simply have died and then been replaced by one of many birds that are always 'moving through' the area.
Or, she might have been physically ousted, as we know can happen elsewhere. Earlier this year there was webcam footage from another project where we say two females fighting for an hour. Any injury incurred could result in her inability to fly, and thus death.
Or, the new female might have taken over without a tussle and the original female was simply unable to restablish her rights over the nest and the male, and she would have moved on to spend the remaining part of her life as a solitary bird somewhere.
It is impossible for us to say which scenario seems most likely to have happened.
Thank you as always.
Truly appreciate all you, and hopefully with everyone's help,we can still follow the very interesting goings on.
It was wonderful to see those clips, thank you for sharing. It's strange to think back to April when our human world suddenly became ominous and scary to see such normality with the peregrines at Derby. We had no webcam at Aylesbury and unlike you have no recording facility so our 2020 season is mostly a big fat unknown. However, the MK Dons football stadium, whilst having no webcam does have regular security cameras and security staff. Through this we know we had some high drama too - including an intruding peregrine being killed by the resident pair.
That is shocking news Sue!
Good to see that the male resident on St Peter's & Paul's Church in Kettering is a chick ringed at Aylesbury in 2016, one year before I started following!
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