National Nestbox Week

Today, Saturday 21st, is the last day of this year's National Nestbox Week.  So we thought we'd pop up to announce that we've now completed our new, experimental peregrine falcon nestbox. 

Nick Moyes pokes his head up through 
the 'landing platform' on the new tower-top box.

It's been quite an effort, hauling tools and timber up the Cathedral tower and working up there in the cold wind. I'm extremely grateful to Nick Evans for his help and especially his carpentry skills without which the construction would have been so much harder. Thanks also to Anthony and Roger for their help in multiple ascents of all 189 steps, taking materials to the top of  the tower.

Rear view of the finished peregrine nest box.
A hinged back gives access for ringing and maintenance.

There are still a number of things to resolve, including lots of tidying up, and trying to set up a new camera in the box. (Note: We have still been without an internet connection for the last week, and are hoping to hear back soon from Derby City Council about fixing the issue). Most importantly, we need to schedule at least one maintenance abseil to remove the sagging base of our old nest platform on the side of the Cathedral tower. We don't want this to remain in place and encourage our birds to try to egg-lay there. We won't be able to do this until the first week of March, but in the meantime we look forward to hearing from anyone who sees peregrine activity from the street below that might indicate they have found this new, temporary home.

 

A landing platform with side 'blinkers' should prevent 
peregrines seeing anyone on the tower, or vice versa 
(unless perched above it, of course!).

See what the new box looks like from the ground - it's hardly visible is it - which was exactly what we wanted on a Grade 1 listed building:

View of the new nest box seen from below.

The box being set back from the stonework means that even the landing platform is barely visible. Spot the protrubing pole on which we hope the adults will land before too long.

                                 

To read more about the issues that led to this temporary nest box on the tower roof, see our two previous posts HERE and HERE. 

This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with support from The Cathedral staff and from Derby City Council's IT team.

New nest box taking shape

 In between days of incessant February rain, we have been working hard on the design and construction of our brand new, experimental peregrine falcon nest box on the tower roof at Derby Cathedral.

Built in 1530, Derby’s stone tower will never have seen anything like this in all its long history. Nor indeed have we!  The previous post explains the rationale and design for this tower ‘top box’. 

Today, Nick Evans and Nick Moyes cut and fixed cladding all round the box that they built a few days ago, and with just the rear hinged door still to clad tomorrow. The framework was cross-braced for strength and rigidity, and a perch-cum-grip bar was fitted towards the front for young birds to hold on to for strengthening their wing muscles. And some 30kg of carefully washed pea gravel was placed in the nest box area, and more is due to be added later for additional stability

Nick Evans beside the partly completely 'top box'.

View looking outwards from beyond
the open rear door of the new nest box.

The box has been set back intentionally from the parapet out of respect for the Grade I listed status of Derby Cathedral. We didn't want this temporary construction to interfere unduly with the outline silhouette of the tower when seen from the street below - hence the long landing platform, open sides and perhaps its larger than necessary size. Time will tell if this approach is successful.

Our plan is then to cut a large hole into one of the side 'blinkers' to permit the installation of a new Axis IP camera that will look back into the nest from a position relatively low down. We think this would give a more natural view of any nesting birds, and any installed camera could then also then be removed and adjusted if necessary (assuming birds are not actually nesting at the time). We have also purchased an analogue nest box camera which should let us feed images directly back to the TV we have installed in the tower's Clock Chamber for use by our project team and the cathedral staff. 

It took over two days simply to haul all
the tools and materials up the 189 tower steps!

Once construction is completed, our plan is then (weather permitting!) to abseil down and remove the sagging base from the old nest platform, whilst leaving the main framework still in place. This will prevent our pair of well-bonded peregrines (with its new female) from attempting to egg-lay there, and we hope that they will discover the alternative location we are providing for them.

If you look closely at the dark timbers of the roof boardwalk, you may spot that they are seriously decayed and dangerous for general visitors to walk upon. For safety reasons, Derby Cathedral cannot allow Tower Tours for the public. But later in 2026 they hope to have raised sufficient funds to replace the rotting wooden boardwalk over the lead-covered tower roof. For that reason, our new 'top box' can only be a temporary construction for 2026. If successful in encouraging our peregrines to nest this year, we will need to re-apply for permission for a more permanent replacement from 2027 onwards once the boardwalk has been replaced. If successful, we will then completely remove the old tower platform, and never have to abseil down there again. Now, wouldn't that be wonderful?

We welcome any contribution to help keep our Peregrine Project running.
Please donate via THIS LINK.
Thank you.

The Project Team
This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlfie Trust with great support from The Cathedral and from the City Council's IT team who help with connectivity.

Time for a change?

For twenty years now, peregrine falcons have nested on the east side of the ancient stone tower of Derby Cathedral. They use a wooden platform that we were given permission to install there back in April 2006, and which needed to be replaced in 2016. Late last year that replacement itself suffered a failure of its base, and we had to quickly remove all the loose stone and gravel into which the birds scrape their nest. 

The location of the platform, as you probably know, requires abseiling by experienced mountaineers who are also skilled in mounting and maintaining the web cameras which bring the live pictures to you. The project has been fortunate to have Nick Moyes (and his climbing buddy, Nick Evans) to perform these abseils every year. We have discussed how to ensure this structural failure can't happen again and concluded that completely redesigning and replacing the existing platform using new, longer lasting materials (with which we are not  familiar), and finding the necessary funding and construction expertise, will not be possible in the short time frame available before the forthcoming breeding season.

Looking around the UK, we see quite a few nest boxes placed on tops of buildings rather than half way down them - and for obvious reasons! Most sit directly on the rooftop itself, but these only work if there is no access or disturbance to the roof while the birds are nesting, something which isn't possible at Derby where flags have to be changed occasionally and routine inspections made. 

And then we encountered this video of an experimental nest box being installed on a church rooftop in Ramsgate. It is enclosed and faces out through one of the stonework's crenellations. Such a box, we thought, might well work for us too. So we decided to apply to the Cathedral authorities to allow us to install a similar box, albeit just as a temporary, emergency measure for this summer to ensure our birds don't move away or try to find somewhere else to nest in the city.

Our plan would be to site the box in the right hand crenellation above the platform when viewed from below - eventually with a camera installed somewhere within it.

After submitting our proposal and drawings to the Cathedral staff, we are delighted to say that they have agreed to our plans. The box will have to be 'temporary' for a number of reasons:

1. there is a chance the birds may not find and use it this summer;
2. the cathedral roof has major renovation works planned for late 2026;
3. the nest box will need to be moved or dismantled when roof works are undertake
4. we will need the further permission of the Cathedral's Fabric Committee for any 'tower top box' to become permanent.
5. we can learn from the construction of this temporary box and improve upon it if necessary.

Of course, if the birds don't adopt it, we'll simply have to go back again to installing a new, more resilient platform lower down for next year. But then we'll have the time to plan and fund it properly. But we are hopeful this alternative approach could offer a long term, easy-to-maintain solution that not only the birds, but also the Cathedral are happy with. It would avoid anyone having to abseil down twice a year for ringing and for maintenance, and ensure our Peregrine Project has a long-term future.

Meanwhile, once the new box has been constructed, we will abseil down to the old platform, check its condition and remove the old base to prevent any attempt at futile egg-laying. We will probably leave at least one camera in place to see what use the birds make of the remaining perch while they are hopefully nesting in the new box up above.

Peregrines are usually very 'site-faithful' and are always very keen to nest, so we are really hopeful that they will adopt the new 'top box' as they have done elsewhere in the UK. In terms of timing, the birds can adapt the time of egg laying to the situation in which they find themselves. In the first year (2006), the platform could not be installed until early April, and yet the birds nested successfully in it, quite some weeks later than in any subsequent year.
So while we will try to get a top box installed as soon as possible the abseil down to the old platform is even more dependent on the weather - and abseiler availability - and might take longer.

The necessary timber and materials have been ordered, and on 4/5th February was cut to size and then carried up to the highest room in the tower.  It's hoped we can start construction over the next week, depending upon the weather.

Please bear with us and remember that all the planning, blogging and construction is all being carried out by the volunteers who have worked on this project since it began, along with the recent addition of Jess, a very able abseiler and Chloe, who now rings any chicks for us.

It could be that our web cams will be down for a while during the work, but our priority has to be the nest box for the birds, rather than cameras for all our viewers. Rest assured we will keep you updated as and when we have news we can share.

Here's Nick Moyes' mock up of the new temporary box:

The box itself is designed to be set back slightly from the parapet to minimise its visual impact when viewed from the street below this Grade1 listed building.

A floor and side panels will link the box to the stonework, and will both prevent the birds inside from seeing people on the roof and visa versa. They will also prevent any chicks falling onto the roof. No drilling or other damage to the stonework will occur, of course. The back will be hinged and kept locked, but openable for ringing and maintenance. Having a box that doesn't require an abseil to reach it would make life so much easier! 

We are confident that the few very occasional visits by cathedral staff (eg to change the flags) will not disturb any incubating or brooding female inside the box if carried out quietly and quickly. There will be no public tower tours until the major renovation work to the roof is carried out towards the end of 2026.

Meanwhile, here's a video made by Wendy Barrter on 30th January showing the new pair bonding well. As you can see, any egg laid there now would simply roll away!

Finally, we hope to be able to install a camera inside the box in due course so that we can all see what's happening inside it. This inevitably has to be a lower priority than settings up  the new tower-top box itself. But we will do what we can, and as soon as we can.

If you would like to donate to support the work of the Peregrine Project, please use the 'Donate' tab, or click here.

The Peregrine Project Team 
This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with great support from The Cathedral and from the City Council's IT team.