Mating observed

 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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