Monday 29 March 2021

Four Eggs and Two Nest Cameras

Derby Cathedral's peregrine falcons now have four eggs - a complete clutch.
Incubation is already underway so there will be little activity until the eggs begin to hatch....just a few change overs of incubation duty with the male covering the eggs as best he can while the female nips off for a quick feed and preen. The female does 90% of the incubation.
This quite period lasts just over 30 days so we expect hatching towards the latter part of April.

And we also now have two live web cameras watching the nest. Click the 'Our webcams' tab to view these from any page of our blog. In due course, they will be re-located on Derby City Council's website.

Those of you who stuck with us whilst we lost internet connectivity during the last two breeding seasons will be aware that, in 2020, our old female falcon was usurped by a new bird (reported here). The mummified corpse of the old falcon was eventually retrieved (see here). 

At the time we believed this new pair bond had not resulted in eggs, but later study of video footage retrieved directly from the cameras suggested that at least one egg might have been laid on the 'far side' of the platform.. Either way, nothing came of this new bond. 

But 2021 is very different...  

We are grateful to Wendy Barter who has been assiduously watching our new webcameras and putting recordings from her monitor onto YouTube. Her latest video, taken 27th March and shown above,  reveals a changeover between the two peregrines and the full clutch of four four eggs (including one unusually pale one).

Wendy often posts links to these video sequences in comments at the bottom of the page, so do remember to check these for the latest updates from many viewers around the world.  You may wish to check our Twitter feed for more updates or see what photos and webcam screenshots others have posted on our dedicated Flickr page. (see also right side of this blog page for these and other links)

Meanwhile, a second camera is now live on the nest, giving a great view across the nest. (We are aware the camera clocks and names need adjusting, which we aim to fix soon via remote access.)



Unfortunately NEST CAM 2's audio capability is not supported by our web hosting company (despite them selling it to us!). But it does have the capability of being pan and tilted, so we'll be working to get this enabled for remote access by the Project Team.

It has been a long and complicated process to get to this stage and we are grateful to Tim Unwin from Derby City Council who finally managed to get the network connection re-established into the tower. You can read the frustrating saga of how the 2020 lockdown defeated us (see here and  here). Fortunately BT Open Reach came to our rescue earlier in 2021 providing the 'missing key' and enabling Tim to get to the cabling! 

Since its inception in 2006, the Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project has been a highly successful partnership between the Cathedral, the City Council and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust.
The cathedral birds arrived completely of their own accord but were encouraged to stay by means of an artificial nest pledge, have now reared over 35 peregrine chicks between them. We no longer have either the original male or female peregrine, yet the breeding site remains successful as you can see. It's pleasing that we can once again share the intimate lives of our birds with web cam watchers around the world.      

   

11 comments:

Wendy Bartter said...

A very comprehensive & interesting read Nick, so very grateful for all your efforts, plus those of your team, in getting live streaming of this nest back for us to enjoy once more, it has always been a pleàsure to follow the fortunes of the beautiful birds we see on here! Looking forward to the joys of fluffy little hatchlings & ultimately fledging!
Heartfelt thanks to you all!

Wendy Bartter said...

Haven't managed to catch any changeovers today mainly due to much time observing Exeter pair, still waiting for first egg there, also the highly unusual happenings at Bournemouth where the female produced a third egg after a whole week!! I had observed her trying in vain to lay an egg at the appointed time but it didn't happen & she was obviously suffering, then seemed to settle, then suddenly this egg @ 21.40 yesterday evening ... Amazing!

Gillmor Class said...

yesterday the pergrine was veri noisy but it didnt get of the eggs. The fiamayl is keeping the eggs worm. She is incubaytting the egs.

Anonymous said...

Changeover at 11.15am today.

Wendy Bartter said...

Pleased that you saw that changeover, incredibly difficult to catch! Had no luck for days!

Wendy Bartter said...

Two for the price of one but didn't quite go as planned ... changeover @ 12.29
https://youtu.be/lkxzNtNNEq0

KATE said...

Well done Wendy.

So pleased that everyone can enjoy your labours of love, by posting here and also our RSPB thread,as you say so easy to miss, some interesting action. Of course with being available on you tube,is another wonderful asset.

Thanks again to both Nicks and all the Team, herculean efforts have paid off, let us hope we will have a healthy successful season.

Wendy Bartter said...

Thanks Kate ... just realised I posted details of latest changeover on wrong thread so repeated below
***Better footage of changeover today @ 13.19, eggs looking good
https://youtu.be/lm90bqL6lEs
3 April 2021 at 13:47 ***

Wendy Bartter said...

Disappointment at Cromer today when first laid egg, which was pure white, broke open as it dropped onto gravel, falcon ate it!
https://youtu.be/kq5gDhnKjQo

Wendy Bartter said...

On a much brighter note a fifth egg was laid at Sutton ... think it's the only five-egger so far!

Wendy Bartter said...

Caught a changeover @ 12.57 within minutes of logging on today ... all looks well
https://youtu.be/FnEtSGutLoY