Despite there being no evidence as yet that our pair of Peregrine Falcons have discovered the new nest box we’ve constructed, there are nevertheless positive signs our birds are not abandoning the cathedral site.
On most nights we have been seeing the female roosting on the crossbar of the old platform (we removed the collapsing base earlier this month).
Most positively, keen webcam watcher, Wendy Bartter, captured the clip below of the pair mating on 15th of March. These moments are inevitably brief and infrequently seen, and even less frequently captured on film.
And HERE are a few other mating sequences from past years on our own YouTube channel.
We can only hope that the urge to egg lay will drive our birds to look for suitable sites somewhere else on the Cathedral Tower. We know they’re really aren’t any, back in 2006 that was the whole rationale for us constructing an egg laying platform for them to use. It was installed on 5th April 2006.
It took them a couple of weeks to find it in that first year, and eggs were laid there around 21st April. The rest as they say is history and Derby Cathedral has seen 57 Peregrine chicks fledge from the tower since that time.
We also know that a pair of peregrines at St Albans, whose eggs were unlawfully trampled on by a worker on the roof in 2025, started laying a second clutch on 4th May.
So, we've not given up hope by any means, and you shouldn't either! We know that, as at 20th March, one of the adults is still roosting for part of most nights on the old platform, visible in Nest Cam 2. Also on Friday 20th March we captured this clp of the falcon on the old nest patform who flies off to greet the male who is calling with food above her. He lands on the platform with a processed prey item, which she then proceeds to consume with gusto. All still very promising.
So keep watching and do continue leaving your interesting comments for us all to see.
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228 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 228 of 228Our female having a preen
And flown
And gone...
Beat me to it, I didn't notice the comments are now on the second page, hehe.
Quite a few visits today, female perched a long time on a couple of occasions but no bonding, mating or prey gifts that I saw!
Female has turned up after a very quiet day!
Only 3 visits today between 10.25 and 17.00 ...
https://youtu.be/0bjll0vtk6o
Very glad for your video as I managed to miss them every time I opened the page today!
YVW Jo, they weren't around nearly as much, made me wonder if they've found another location
I have my fingers crossed every time I open this page and click on cam 1 to find one in the new nest box but nooooo....yesterday was a very quiet one as didn't see any of them home much
Hello DWT Team. I have a few questions. The current new nest needs removing later this year for (I think you said) boardwalk roof replacement. Do you have any idea when in the year you'll be able to put it back if you do? Also I don't have sound on for media on my phone so the flagpole noise has passed me by, but is there anywhere further away from the flagpole to site it if it's close to it? I have no idea of the size of the Cathedral roof. Oh and when you were rearranging gravel, did you get rid of those poor little bird corpses you added which must be pretty nasty by now. Is there no way than abseiling to create a nest platform on, say that pointy lower roof below the original platform?
It's the second day I haven't seen anyone home
St Alban's have their first egg this morning. Fingers crossed all goes well this year
Hi Anonymous. All good questions: As yet we don't know if the Cathedral has found all the funding for the tower roof repairs, or when it will happen. Our temporary permission was based on our undertaking to dismantle the nest box before that work started, but obviously after the normal nesting season, i.e. July onwards. We would probably reapply for permission again later in the year for the 2027 season, irrespective of whether our pair with its new female breed in 2026, or not..
The flagpole noise can be heard from street level (as can the bells!!), so it's simply that the gain of our micrphone might be a bit high. We could turn it down, but we might then lose other background noises which we might find of interest). Any regular noise or activity soon gets ignored as a non-threat, as far as the birds are concerned. As for us viewers, well maybe that's a different matter.
The corpses are still there, just as many others are that are happily rotting away around the top of the tower. They pose no issue to the birds, and were placed there, not as food, but as an attempt to suggest it was a suitable ledge for feeding etc. I might now try to remove them when should I go up again in the near future, but am keen to stay away so as not to accidentally disturb any birds that's around. Just becasue we can't see (or hear) them on the webcams doesn't mean they aren't nearby. Hope this helps.
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It was all cracking off at the cathedral this afternoon just before 2 pm! With what looked like the female on the nest platform, the other adult repeatedly flew around the tower, often then ranging out way across the river to the east before returning again. It looked like he was carrying food but seemed reluctant to land with it.
Suddenly a third peregrine came on the scene, and pretty soon all three were in the air. It was hard to see which was which, but soon the interloper disappeared. Interestingly, one adult then flew back to the tower, landing in a very small alcove on the top left-hand side above the Bell Tower louvres. This was precisely where back in 2006, are Peregrines first made a futile attempt to nest and which resulted in us installing the tower ledge for them!
Soon after that, both Peregrines left the cathedral heading far off east and disappeared out of sight.
Encouraging that they can still both be easily seen from below even when it may appear that one, or indeed none, are visible in our web cameras!
Here is the view we got from cam #2 during the activity described by Nick M ...
https://youtu.be/EEONSBqCSM8
Suddenly lost transmission of cam #1 ... Anyone else?
That was me Wendy; I’m doing some quick maintenance and switched cam1 off. It should resolve itself soon - usually less than 30 minutes.
'Tis ok again, thanks Nick
See the slate plus bird face blacked out and cam #2 clock is now BST 🤞for our pair to take residence!
What is the reason for putting pieces of slate on the nest box platform?
Loving the artistic arrangement of some blue/gray flattish stones on the platform in front of the gravel nesting site...
Why not? Just thought a bit of rocky feng shui wouldn’t go amiss. They’re hardly likely to trip over them!
You can see one home, or the top of their head. 😆
I was hoping she’d be back in a minute before leaving a comment but it’s been five minutes or so since she left…
Came in at 17.57 and flew at 18.53 ... not sure if same bird all through?
https://youtu.be/lVf1TdJHgoM
I am much entertained by the thought of peregrine feng shui :)
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