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 2025. . .
If you are enjoying the web cams then please consider making a donation specifically to support this project which relies on donations from web cam watchers and watch point attendees. There's a tab on the blog home page labled 'Donations' which tells you how you can donate.
The Project Team This Project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, aided by The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and the City Council's IT team to whom thanks.
Update 24 May The first Watch Point took place today and was a huge success! Helen, one of our brilliant volunteer team wrote:
Yesterday's watchpoint was very well attended, with nearly three hundred visitors by the end of the session. Lots of children were among them, including one very young girl who literally jumped for joy when she caught her first glimpse of the peregrines through our telescope. She had come with her family especially to see them, and her excitement at seeing the birds made our day! Both of the adult birds were around for most of the time, with the female on the platform and the male perched higher up on the tower keeping a watchful eye on the chicks below. We had some great views of the chicks looking over the edge of the platform, occasionally flapping their wings and sending clouds of white down into the air. They were fed twice during the morning and it was good to see them with full crops. The peregrines provided plenty of excellent photo opportunities and you can see some of the great pictures taken by Luke W, who has kindly shared them on our Flickr group - https://www.flickr.com/photos/194643864@N05/54542607375/in/pool-derbyperegrines/ . Luke has more fantastic photographs of peregrines on his own Flickr account. A brilliant first watchpoint with more to come! The next Watch Point is this Wednesday 28th May between 10 am to 2 pm . Do come along and see the birds for real!! Our super volunteers and Marc Whitlock from DWT will be on hand with telescopes and lots of great information!
And FYI: the camera on the right hand side of the platform has been repositioned this morning to afford better views of the chicks.....
Update 20th May: here's a further video from Wendy made today showing how big the chicks are now and how their first feathers are beginning to appear! Growth is so fast it is not surprising that the chicks need to lie down, sometimes for long periods.....
Update 15th May: please be aware that the chicks are now mobile and often move to the side of the platform where they can't be seen on either camera. They have not fallen off! Here's a YT video by Wendy of the chicks taken on 16th May. They have grown big for sure!
As the two chicks grow and become visible from the ground below, it's time for us to organise a few Watch Points enabling visitors to the cathedral (and to Derby if you live within reach) to see and learn more about these fabulous birds. This year the organising has been carried out by Marc Whitlock who works for the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust which manages this project. We have a wonderful team of volunteers who help us every year and who will be on hand to point things out and help you with the telescopes.
The dates are:
Saturday 24th May Wednesday 28th May Saturday 31st May and Saturday 7th June.
Each will run on Cathedral Green, behind the Cathedral on Full Street between 10 am and 2pm.
The telescopes are set up on the grass on Cathedral Green which makes a very pleasant place to watch the birds 'for real' - quite a different experience from just watching the web cams. It's entirely free and you can stay as long as you wish. Bring a folding chair, some lunch and some binoculars if you have them!
You will see the adults flying about and going to the platform to feed the chicks, the chicks teetering on the platform edge once they have feathers and are flexing them and other wildlife passing by too.
Nest platform circled in red. Photo Nick Moyes
This has included buzzards (which the falcons sometimes attack!), red kites, sparrowhawks and occasionally ravens which now nest just outside the city and which, a few years back, started to build a nest on the cathedral much to the annoyance of the peregrines which chased them off!
Adults photographed in 2022 by Dave Farmer from the ground below: male left, female right. Also with the River Derwent close by, we often see grey wagtails, banded demoiselles and even a kingfisher if you are very lucky!
Do bring youngsters if you have any...they really love seeing the birds! Photo Nick Brown
Update 10th May: the two chicks continue to grow well and are even feeding themselves from scraps left on the platform. Here's a video from Wendy taken today:
The ringing of the two chicks today (8th May) went smoothly as usual and the two were quickly returned to their nest with bling on their legs!One chick was 200grams heavier than the other so we have a female and a (smaller) male.
All photos by Watch Point volunteer Joyce Sawford to whom thanks. And massive thanks to Jess Eades (the abseiler) and Chloe Pritchard (the ringer) for their expert help today.
The ring details are:
the likely FEMALE:Orange Colour Ring = XLN;BTO metal ring = GY69751; weight 738g.
The likely MALE : Orange Colour ring XNN,BTO ring GY69752, weight 538g.
(Note: these details have been updated as the male ring letters were initially given incorrectly)
The female with her colour ring on view
Here's Wendy Bartter's condensed video of the whole ringing process, taken from the web cams:
Ps There will be four Watch Point events starting later this month when the chicks are visible from the ground. Details to follow later.
This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with support from The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and the city council's IT team to whom thanks.
Update Thursday 8th: the two chicks will be ringed this afternoon, probably between about 2.30 and 3.30 pm. Skilled abseilers Jess Eades and Nick Moyes will go down on ropes from the top of the tower. Jess will bag and lower the chicks to the nave roof where they will be taken inside and ringed, weighed and measured. Nick will carry out some maintenance work on the platform meanwhile. Chloe Pritchard, a licenced bird ringer, will process the chicks in a room inside the tower before they are bagged up again and returned to the nest.
The cams will be kept on so you will see human bodies at the nest and need not worry!
Photos and details will be posted on the blog afterwards.
This video made by Wendy Bartter on 6th May shows just how the two chicks have grown. On 7th May they were 18 and 16 days old.
The size difference might indicate that the smaller chick is a male but time will tell.
If you have been enjoying watching the live stream and reading the blog and the many comments, do please consider making a donation to help keep the project running. Throught its 20 year life, the project has relied heavily on private donations from web cam watchers who have been incredibly generous and without whom the project would have collapsed years ago. You'll find a tab on the blog landing page titled 'Donations' which gives you various options. Thanks in advance! The Project Team
The project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with great support from its excellent partners The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and the city council's IT team.
Update Sunday 27th: it's been quite clear for some days now that the other two eggs won't hatch and have been abandoned. The two chicks are being well looked after by the parent birds and are growing fast...... Lots of Wendy's video clips showing feeds can be found in the comments.
Update Monday 21st pm: second chick has hatched!
Screenshot by Kate of both chicks:
Video by Wendy of second chick revealed:
After what seemed like a long wait, a chick was spotted just before midnight last night (19th). The screengrab below was captured this morning by Helen, one of our dedicated watch point volunteers.
Here's a video by Wendy showing the first feed:
The Project Team The project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with excellent partners The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and the city council's IT team.
Update: Here's one of Wendy Bartter's many video clips posted to the blog comments, this one showing a change over on 5th April:
So now we are in the period of incubation when the eggs are kept warm by the parent birds as they develop. We can expect hatching to take place sometime around Easter, 18-21 April. Until then, there's not much happening except change overs as the pair share the work of sitting on the eggs.
If you missed it, scroll down the blog to read about the egg laying period and be sure to check out the comments which include many video clips made for us by Wendy Bartter.
Here's just one of those showing a changeover on 25th March:
There have been 67,000 hits to the web cams and blog in 2025 so far and over 5,500,000 since the cams were installed in 2007. Scroll down the blog to see the Clustr map which shows where in the world folk have been watching!
And the excellently supportive Cathedral staff have just installed a huge TV screen inside the cathedral showing the live web cam feed.
The Project Team
This project, now in its 20th year, is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with great support from its partners; The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and Derby City Council's IT team.
Update Tuesday 18th: a fourth egg was laid this morning! Please check out the comments for more information/video clips.
All four eggs visible today (18th). Screenshot by Kate
Here's a video by Wendy showing a change over yesterday:
The third egg was laid yesterday and here's a screenshot taken by Kate in Devon to whom many thanks:
The eggs. the darkest was the first. Screenshot by Kate.
To read about the first two eggs and find links to videos posted by Wendy Barrter please scroll down to the previous post and its comments.
The Project team The project is in its 20th year!
The project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with support from its partners Derby Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and Derby City Council's IT team.
Update Saturday evening - egg number three appears!
Update Thursday morning: a SECOND EGG was laid early this morning, spotted by Jean. With luck we'll have a full clutch of four by sometime on Monday.
Update: we have our first egg today (10th), a whole week earlier than in 2024! It was spotted this afternoon by eagle-eyed regular web cam watcher Kate down in Devon. Here's her screen grab:
And here's a video captured by Wendy Barrter clearly showing the egg which seems to have been laid just before 3pm.
Go to the comments to see many more videos posted to YouTube by Wendy.
On 3rd March, Dave Farmer, who is a regular photographer of our birds spent three hours down at the Cathedral watching them and taking photos.
He wrote:
"I arrived at 11.50am. At 1.45 action ensued. The male was perched on the right hand lead rain spout looking quite relaxed.
The male on the lead spout. Dave Farmer (easyphotography.co.uk)
He left suddenly to chase away a second female which he did really easily. Whilst he was doing that the "real" (resident) female took up station on the nest platform. She was continually scanning the sky.
The resident female keeps a wary eye. Photo: Dave Farmer
(easyphotography.co.uk )
As this was my first visit this year, I don't know if mating has taken place but I think the odds are that it has."
Thanks so much Dave!
Scroll down to the previous post to read about the abseil to clean up the platform and see the comments below it which include links to the video clips that Wendy Bartter makes and puts on YouTube for us.
The Project Team This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with support from its partners, The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter & Derby City Council's IT team.
The project is celebrating its 20th year! There have now been OVER 5 million hits to the web cams and blog since 2007!
Nick Evans about to abseil down to the nest platform
Today (19th) Nick Evans, who made the current nest platform, abseiled down to clean it up and adjust the cameras before the start of the nesting season. He was assisted by Nick Moyes. Some anti-pigeon plastic spikes which had fallen off the top of one of the cameras (designed to stop the falcons using it as a perch) were removed and replaced.
Wendy Barrter has put together this speeded up video. The clean up took Nick 42 minutes, the video lasts just 5!
This is our annual clean-up event and it has just occured to us that this is our 20th year with this successful project which started back in 2006 when the first platform was installed by the two aforementioned Nicks.
The first web cams were added by Nick Moyes a year later in 2007.
Hopefully in the next few weeks you may see (and hear) the peregrine pair displaying to each other and also scraping a shallow depression in the gravel where eggs will eventually be laid. Mating itself usually takes place on the stonework above the nest, out of view of the cameras!
Do put a comment on this blog if you see any activity?
Fingers crossed for a successful outcome in this special year!
The Project Team (volunteers Nick Moyes and Nick Brown plus DWT staff Diane Gould and Marc Whitlock who will be organising the Watch Point events).
The project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with wonderful support from Derby Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and Derby City Council.
Happy New Year to all our blog readers and webcam watchers. We've had snow, ice and much wet weather in recent months but, as usual, the mighty peregrine falcon can take all this in its stride. Its mountain habitats are far wilder than anything they might experience in Derby, here in the centre of England.
We've turned a corner, and soon the days will soon start to become noticeably longer, and our pair of pergrine falcons will become more active on the nest platform. Occasionally they visit the nest ledge on the side of Derby Cathedral to maintain their claim on their nest site and to get ready for the next breeding season.
Last night we took a screenshot of the nest from Cam 1 and took another this morning. There has clearly been activity and some nest-scraping between these shots.
You may notice a small, spiked piece of plastic in the nighttime shot. This is a fragment of a bird spike that must have come loose and fallen from one of our cameras. They were placed there some years ago to discourage any bird from perching directly on top of the cameras. It's nothing to be worried about. They're very light and this fragment is easily moved. So, although we'll remove this when we do a pre-breeding maintenance abseil, it won't hinder the birds in any way. As we see in the daytime shot a few hours later, it will simply be pushed aside as if a twig had fallen into the scape and ignored.
We have reset our visitor counter for 2025, noting a significant increase in unique visits to our blog and webcams last year. We ended December with 321,000 such visits - up some 90,000 on 2023), and we look forward to welcoming many of you again over the coming twelve months.
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