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. . .
After a lot of flying about, the juvenile male finally managed to get back to the platform and get fed. These birds are much more resilient than we think!
Please consider making a donation to this project which almost entirely depends on web cam watchers and Watch Point visitors making donations. Go to the tab on the blog called Donations. Thanks in advance.
Juvenile male finds it way to a nearby roof before returning to the platform. Photo: Ant Pooles Marc Whitlock (DWT) sent this account of today's Watch Point:
On a warm and windy watchpoint today early drama saw the young male peregrine reappear after a short absence. He was spotted shortly after 10am by one of our volunteers on nearby rooftops on Full Street. It later attempted to land on the north side of the tower but then returned to nearby rooftops. There was a lot of wing flapping from its sibling on the nest platform with both parents looking on. The adults both took flights, some lower over Cathedral Green before returning to familiar perches on the tower. During the watchpoint, a buzzard and a red kite flew high over the tower. Of the 150+ visitors to the watchpoint was a little girl who came on her birthday with her sister following a talk on peregrines at their school recently.
This video shows both juveniles on the platform late this afternoon.
10.30 am Saturday 31st May After a long and fruitless search of the cathedral roofs, the young male was found safe and well on the roof of a nearby building soon after. He later flew strongly round the back of the cathedral and will be perching somewhere there. The adult female was in close attendance.
Watch point volunteers will keep a close eye on him this morning and see what happens.
We'll update as and when we have any further news of him.
The project team
This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust but relies heavily on the input of volunteers. Support comes from The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and the city council's IT team.
Update 31 May - young male found sitting on nearby roof looking fine. Please see new post for more detail.
Update 30th May| The male chick is still just below the platform this morning with the female hunkered down out of sight from the ground. Please read the text below explaining what the situation is.
Update May 29th: the project team is aware that one of the chicks appears to have been blown or pushed onto the tower just below the platform. We'll keep checking the comments for further news but if the chick has found a ledge it can perch on, it should be OK and will be fed by the parent birds. Certainly we could not abseil down either in this gusty wind or without risking the other chick jumping ship as well, making matters worse. And in addition we would need to get permission from Natural England to visit the nest since this is a Schedule 1 species with special protection.
Yesterday's Watch Point went really well with visitors from Canada, Austria and Turkey dropping by as well as many interested youngsters, according to WP volunteer Gill Foxcroft. The next one is THIS SATURDAY 31st MAY so do try to get along if you can.
Composite photo by Gill Foxcroft
May 25th
Yesterday's Watch Point went very well as described in the previous blog entry (scroll down to read about it).
The next one is this Wednesday, 10 am to 2pm on Cathedral Green and the following ones are on Saturday May 31st and Saturday 7th June.
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.
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