Three chicks now and one white egg remaining plus update 2 May

Update 2 May: It is clear now that the white egg will not hatch. Here's a video clip from today showing that the three chicks are now growing fast! Thanks again to Wendy Bartter for capturing it. You will find links to many other of her clips on the comments page:

After some delay, a third egg has hatched so there are now three chicks.
Whether the white egg, the first to be laid, will hatch at all is now in doubt.....but time will tell: The video above was captured today by Wendy Bartter to whom many thanks.
And Dave Farmer stood below the cathedral the other day and took these photos of the male - he certainly is a ;handsome chap'!

Airborne again.....photo by gdfotos.co.uk  

Best foot forward.....photo by gdfotos.co.uk  

For anyone new to our project, please scroll down to read previous posts which will explain what has happened so far...and also click on the Webcams tab to watch the live webcams. Currently we have two giving different views of the incubating bird.....

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 which manages the project. 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. 
     

The Project Team

First egg hatches this morning (22nd April) and an Update

Update 24th April: with two eggs hatched now we can expect a third quite soon. Whether the white egg, the first to be laid, will hatch we must begin to doubt.....
Here's the latest feed captured by the incredible efforts of Wendy Bartter (thanks Wendy):

Our first egg hatched this morning (Thursday 22nd) and screengrabs were captured by 'Necessity is Plato' - so thanks to you whoever and wherever you are!
Hopefully we will have a video of a changeover before too long which will also show the tiny white chick. This page will be updated as and when......
Here is that video (thanks Wendy) showing a somewhat erratic feed with the chick apparently on its back at one point:

By working back through comments left on our blog and at our @derbyperegrines Twitter account yesterday and today, it seems that the first signs that hatching was imminent were heard last night (21st April) Anonymous said: "I definitely heard faint cheeping just now!"

At 10:25 this morning, on Twitter, Necessity is Plato posted the image above, saying "One Chick is definitely hatched!!!"

At 10:35 this morning, Anonymous repeated: "ONE CHICK HAS DEFINITELY HATCHED!"

Then at 10:45am, Anonymous said:: "The female bird is eating one of the brown eggshells. :)"

AnonyBy 12:27, Wendy Bartler had captured this video of the tiercel's first visit after hatching. 

At 14:50, one of the Year 1 children in Gillmor Class at Brigg Infants School had posted this lovely comment: "we hav seen a wite flufy chick. we wer exssited."

At 14:52, Wendy captured this video of the male bringing in food, but she shows little interest in it. 

By 17:09 we saw the first successful feeding of the new chick (see above)

Incubation continues

Update at 20th April: a fine view of the eggs as hatching approaches as captured by Wendy Bartter yesterday (19th):

As we slowly approach hatching there's not a lot happening - but Wendy Bartter has been capturing videos showing the changeovers between the male and female peregrines.

She has been putting links to them on the comments (eg to the last blog post) but here are two of the more recent ones - this one from 15th:

And this one from 16th. Wendy thinks the coloured eggs look a slightly different shape:

As hatching approaches, the female will begin to hear the cheeping of the chicks from inside the eggs.

She will become more 'fidgety', getting up and looking at the eggs and then sitting down on them again.

Hatching often takes place at night.....so we wonder which of you night owls will see a fluffy white chick first?

The Project Team

For anyone new to our project, please scroll down to read previous posts which will explain what has happened so far...and also click on the Webcams tab to watch the live webcams. Currently we have two giving different views of the incubating bird.....

One smart bird!

Please scroll down to the previous post to read about the recent news regarding eggs and about  incubation (which is now underway) and to see videos sent by Wendy Bartter in the comments section. Her latest video shows a change over:

These photos of our male, taken by Dave Farmer the other day, show him to be a stunning individual
as you can see for yourselves.
Note the unusual view of its fanned tail, presumably while he was either stretching, preening or both.

Photo credit: gdfotos.co.uk 

                                                        Photo credit: gdfotos.co.uk 

And another video from Wendy showing the male preening himself while his other half does all the hard work! Thanks again Wendy......

The Project team