Your Peregrine Project Team maintain a table of dates for key events over the last few breeding seasons. Normally, as the female gets more experienced, the dates of laying get progressively earlier. Here are the dates for first egg, last egg and date of hatching over the last few years: 2007 3 April 9 April, 9 May Incubation: 30 days 2008 28 March 4 April, 4 May Incubation: 30 days 2009 23 March 31 March 29 April Incubation: 30 days 2010 24 March 31 March 1 May Incubation: 31 days 2011 4 April 9 April So we see incubation takes around thirty days, giving us an expected hatching date of 9th May. Quite why she was later this year is not known. Do we still have the original female as last year (we're 99.9% sure that we do)? Has the colder weather this year delayed things? The answer is we simply don't know. These next few weeks will be rather quiet times on the webcams, with the female doing most of the incubation. Sometimes the male will come in and take over while she feeds and preens, but she soon returns to oust him from his paternal duties.
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. . .
Showing posts with label egg-laying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label egg-laying. Show all posts
Sunday, 10 April 2011
We have a Fourth Egg
Clutch sizes of three or four are normal in peregrines. But, because egg-laying was as late this year as it was in 2007, it seemed more likely that we would only have a clutch of three in 2011. However, reports of a fourth egg began coming in on Saturday morning (9th April) around 7am, which were confirmed later by this lovely screen capture posted to our Flickr Group by HelenSara. Your Peregrine Project Team maintain a table of dates for key events over the last few breeding seasons. Normally, as the female gets more experienced, the dates of laying get progressively earlier. Here are the dates for first egg, last egg and date of hatching over the last few years: 2007 3 April 9 April, 9 May Incubation: 30 days 2008 28 March 4 April, 4 May Incubation: 30 days 2009 23 March 31 March 29 April Incubation: 30 days 2010 24 March 31 March 1 May Incubation: 31 days 2011 4 April 9 April So we see incubation takes around thirty days, giving us an expected hatching date of 9th May. Quite why she was later this year is not known. Do we still have the original female as last year (we're 99.9% sure that we do)? Has the colder weather this year delayed things? The answer is we simply don't know. These next few weeks will be rather quiet times on the webcams, with the female doing most of the incubation. Sometimes the male will come in and take over while she feeds and preens, but she soon returns to oust him from his paternal duties.
Your Peregrine Project Team maintain a table of dates for key events over the last few breeding seasons. Normally, as the female gets more experienced, the dates of laying get progressively earlier. Here are the dates for first egg, last egg and date of hatching over the last few years: 2007 3 April 9 April, 9 May Incubation: 30 days 2008 28 March 4 April, 4 May Incubation: 30 days 2009 23 March 31 March 29 April Incubation: 30 days 2010 24 March 31 March 1 May Incubation: 31 days 2011 4 April 9 April So we see incubation takes around thirty days, giving us an expected hatching date of 9th May. Quite why she was later this year is not known. Do we still have the original female as last year (we're 99.9% sure that we do)? Has the colder weather this year delayed things? The answer is we simply don't know. These next few weeks will be rather quiet times on the webcams, with the female doing most of the incubation. Sometimes the male will come in and take over while she feeds and preens, but she soon returns to oust him from his paternal duties.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Third Egg
Third Egg
At 20:40pm our third egg arrived, it seems.
I missed it myself as I was busy uploading the video clips of the last two egg-laying moments to YouTube!
Below is the first egg being laid at 11pm on 1st April 2011, after keeping us all guessing and worrying why she was so much later than last year. Had we got a new female, one expert asked. The answer was that we certainly weren't aware of one of the pair being replaced - but it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility.
Here's the second egg, laid at 11.20am on 4th April. Listen very carefully and you can actually hear the sound of it hitting the gravel!
At 20:40pm our third egg arrived, it seems.
I missed it myself as I was busy uploading the video clips of the last two egg-laying moments to YouTube!
Below is the first egg being laid at 11pm on 1st April 2011, after keeping us all guessing and worrying why she was so much later than last year. Had we got a new female, one expert asked. The answer was that we certainly weren't aware of one of the pair being replaced - but it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility.
Here's the second egg, laid at 11.20am on 4th April. Listen very carefully and you can actually hear the sound of it hitting the gravel!
Monday, 4 April 2011
Egg-tastic (Second Egg)
Egg number two arrived around 11.18am this morning, and the screenshot below was immediately posted to our Flickr Pool. In fact Marski101 and Craig both captured and posted this identical image, showing the newly laid, moist egg, which is darker and shinier than its counterpart.
On average, Peregrines lay clutches of four eggs, so it's likely that we'll see at least one more in the next couple of days. We can't expect all the eggs to survive to maturity, of course. In fact they may not even all hatch. But for now lets just wait and see how many we get.
On average, Peregrines lay clutches of four eggs, so it's likely that we'll see at least one more in the next couple of days. We can't expect all the eggs to survive to maturity, of course. In fact they may not even all hatch. But for now lets just wait and see how many we get.
Saturday, 2 April 2011
Finally, Our First Egg.
After keeping everyone on tenterhooks for days on end, Derby's peregrines finally have their first egg of the season. Around 10pm this evening she once again came down to the nest ledge and looked as if she was about to lay. And this time she did. The first glimpse of an egg was seen around 22.57 this evening.
 |
| First view - captured by webcam viewer, Jean Burton and posted to Flickr |
Our pair have certainly kept us all on hanging on, causing a flurry of comments and concern from everyone here in Derby and, indeed, right around the world. Under infra-red light that egg looks like a white chicken's egg, but when daybreak comes you'll see the rich reddish brown of its true colours. Do not be alarmed when you see this egg and the others that are undoubtedly on the way being left, apparently unattended for hours on end. This is normal, and we'll blog about why this happens this later.
I was able to put the project's brand new smartphone to very good use tonight, having taken it to bed for a much-needed early night, after an exhausting and life-changing week for me. I had seen our female well and truly ensconced in that typical egg-laying pose at 10pm, but simply had to catch some sleep. I woke at midnight, turned on the smartphone (an HTC Desire HD) and went online to view the webcam whilst still under the duvet. There was the falcon, clearly in an incubating position. If any excuse were needed to get out of bed to make a cup of tea and do a bit of late-night computing, then surely that was the moment. Flickr To capture and post your own webcam snapshots which we can then put into our blog, follow the link to our Flickr photogroup at the upper left of this blog. There you can join up to our group, or if you're not sure how to, you can read instructions on how to capture and load up those snapshots. Please don't turn off the "share this" option as it makes it harder for the project team to capture your best screen shots and embed them in the blog.
Nick Moyes
formerly Keeper of Natural Sciences
Derby Museum and Art Gallery Please bear with us during the immediate period following my recent departure from Derby Museum. Currently I do not have direct access to our networks to control the cameras and video server, to take images or remotely reboot our video server if it freezes. If the latter happens, please leave a comment on this blog and also email museums@derby.gov.uk. We're putting steps in place for the Assistant Head of Museums to try to restart the equipment for the time being, should a freeze-up occur.
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Egg Laying Imminent?
It looked like we'd have our first egg later today. This picture was taken at 7am on Wednesday morning local time and everything looked promising until 7.30am when she moved away from the scrape.
I suspect the comment from one of our readers, Craig in nearby Nottingham, reflects many of you who are watching this morning. Keep checking our blog comments below this post to catch up on all the latest happenings that our world-wide webcam watchers are reporting. And post those snapshots onto our Flickr Photo Pool. Just follow the link at the top left of the blog. There you'll find all the information you need.
I'll post more pictures and news here when I'm able.
As at 2pm there's no sign of the female at the platform, and certainly no egg. What a waiting game these old birds love to play on us!
Update: By non Thursday there was still no sign of an egg, despite lots of false starts and typical egg-laying poses.
Nick Moyes
ex-Keeper of Natural Sciences
Derby Museum and Art Gallery
07.17 Breakfast prepared, still no eggs. 07.18 Tiercel is down on the wall below the scrape. 07.19 He's off. 07.22 Tiercel is on the tower. 07.25 Have a quick move around, perhaps dig the scrape a bit more. 07.26 More digging. 07.27 All fluffed up right over the scrape... camera zooms in, the ANTICPATION... isn't doing anything for the Tiercel. And the Falcon relaxes. 07.29 Moves off the scrape to the ledge. Camera zooms in... yep, no eggs there, and reset. 07.30 Having a preen. Got to look your best with these camera closeups. This minute by minute report was brought to you by someone who should be getting ready for work! |
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
On Tenter Hooks
Newsflash: First egg laid c.5am 24th March.
Derby's peregrines are keeping us all waiting and wondering. Will there be an egg appearing soon? How much longer? The answer is we're not sure, but it probably won't be too long now. Earlier this lunchtime we caught these scenes of the male peregrine (tiercel) sitting in the nest scrape with the female rather oblivious to his presence, eating some food item or other. But eventually she went into the typical head-down bowing display, accompanied by short, muted calls from the male. Managing to zoom in on him, it was interesting to note that he seemed to be nodding off at times. The white "eyelids" (called nictating membranes which move across the eye from bottom to top) lazily closed his eyes from time to time. Perhaps all this courtship is simply too much hard work.
When the falcon is ready to lay we'll probably see her on the scrape for some considerable time, showing virtually no activity at all, and in a more horizontal, back-hunched sort of way than we're used to. We are often asked how long it will be between the first egg being laid and hatching, but we'd rather answer a different question. We prefer: How long betwen the last egg being laid and hatching? Please don't become alarmed when you see our peregrines appearing to abandon their newly lain eggs for a few hours at a time. This is quite normal. Incubation only starts in earnest once a full clutch is laid. This time period is 30 days. This is quite unusual, as we tend to think of most birds of prey and owls staggering the hatching of their young. We can talk about the reasons for this later on. Meanwhile, for those of you new to watching Derby's webcameras this year, and finding yourselves totally hooked, the Team would like to apologise in advance for you doing absolutely no work for the next few days! Eggs can be laid at any time of day or night.
May we take this chance to thank everyone for keeping us all up to date with descriptions of what they're seeing over the cameras? It gives us all a chance to learn what has been going on during the times when we're away from the cameras. Last year our first egg was laid on 23rd March. No prizes, but an honourable mention will go to the person who cares to guess the date and time of that first egg, and gets the closest to the right answer! Just leave a comment and your name.
Derby's peregrines are keeping us all waiting and wondering. Will there be an egg appearing soon? How much longer? The answer is we're not sure, but it probably won't be too long now. Earlier this lunchtime we caught these scenes of the male peregrine (tiercel) sitting in the nest scrape with the female rather oblivious to his presence, eating some food item or other. But eventually she went into the typical head-down bowing display, accompanied by short, muted calls from the male. Managing to zoom in on him, it was interesting to note that he seemed to be nodding off at times. The white "eyelids" (called nictating membranes which move across the eye from bottom to top) lazily closed his eyes from time to time. Perhaps all this courtship is simply too much hard work.
When the falcon is ready to lay we'll probably see her on the scrape for some considerable time, showing virtually no activity at all, and in a more horizontal, back-hunched sort of way than we're used to. We are often asked how long it will be between the first egg being laid and hatching, but we'd rather answer a different question. We prefer: How long betwen the last egg being laid and hatching? Please don't become alarmed when you see our peregrines appearing to abandon their newly lain eggs for a few hours at a time. This is quite normal. Incubation only starts in earnest once a full clutch is laid. This time period is 30 days. This is quite unusual, as we tend to think of most birds of prey and owls staggering the hatching of their young. We can talk about the reasons for this later on. Meanwhile, for those of you new to watching Derby's webcameras this year, and finding yourselves totally hooked, the Team would like to apologise in advance for you doing absolutely no work for the next few days! Eggs can be laid at any time of day or night.
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Egg number three!
(Almost) right on cue - and the third egg is laid. That man Colin knows his peregrine breeding biology for sure!
And his prediction for egg number four is 12.30 am on Tuesday...not the best of times for us UK-watchers!
Thanks to Coconut for the picture.
The female laid three eggs in 2006 - her first breeding season we feel sure, 4 in both 2007 and 08.
Nick B (DWT)
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
A rosy glow
After the news of our first peregrine egg being laid yesterday evening, there was a flurry of excited comments left from around the world, and quite a bit of local interest here in Derby City, too. Local radio, TV and newspapers have already picked up on the story, and Cathedral Green saw a small posse of bird watchers gathered to see what was going on this morning. It's a pleasure to see old friends from last year, even if it wasn't possible to talk to them whilst in the middle of a live outside broadcast interview with Radio Derby halfway down Amen Alley (yes, this is a genuine Derby street name!) But we are hoping for a few pleasant lunchtime gatherings this summer to "talk peregrines" with everyone on the newly refurbished Green.Just to allay any fears, don't be surprised if you see the egg(s) lying abandoned in the nest for an hour or more at a time. This is quite normal, and intensive incubation only really gets underway once all the eggs are laid. Then the clock starts ticking, and all the eggs should hatch around the same time.
Thanks to one viewer (Karen Anne in the US) who left a comment and link to a photo of the egg seen early this morning in daylight when their true colour becomes obvious. Having hyperlinks to your uploaded images is the best way that viewers can make webcam snapshots available to us without crashing our email Inboxes. Whenever possible, jpegs are best. Here then is our latest video clip, hot from the DVD recorders that churn away continuously inside Derby Cathedral's ancient tower. It was captured just after first light this morning, hence the rosy glow on the bird and the overall image graininess.
Nick B. of Derbyshire Wildluife Trust added the folliwng comment to this blog entry, but it's really worth repeating here for those visitors who aren't interested in looking at the comments some of us leave:
Just to confirm what Nick M said - the birds need to stop the egg getting too cold (and there is a cold wind in the city today). . . but not start the incubation properly until all four (we hope) eggs are laid.Otherwise there could be up to a 6-8 day gap between the first and the last hatching. That would mean the younger chicks would get a raw deal when it came to feeding time. Now some other birds (eg the barn owl) adopt a different strategy, linked to their much more uncertain food supply. They incubate the first egg immediately so there is a big gap between the first and last hatching. If food is short (and mice and vole numbers do fluctuate widely from year to year) then the younger chicks die - or get eaten by their older siblings (charming stuff!). With peregrines, where food is usually abundant, the strategy is the opposite. Hope that helps to explain their ecology a bit more!
Monday, 23 March 2009
More photos - and Our First Egg!
Our female peregrine has been leading many of us a merry dance today. This morning we were convinced she was about to lay her first egg. But, after standing in the scrape for an hour or so, she moved away to reveal . . .nothing.At 20:30 here in the UK, she was once again on the nest scrape in darkness, lit only by a faint wash from the tower floodlights, and by our own infra-red illuminators. 
It did look like she might lay tonight, and sure enough exactly an hour later at 21:27 we caught a glimpse of her first egg. We hope you've all enjoy watching, and we hope we can capture some more great moments in the lives of these majestic birds during 2009. (Our thanks to Karen Anne in Canada who supplied a link to the jpg she'd saved of the first daylight glimpse of the new egg early on Tuesday morning. Under infra-red light the egg looks white, but in daylight we see the richness of its colour.)
It did look like she might lay tonight, and sure enough exactly an hour later at 21:27 we caught a glimpse of her first egg. We hope you've all enjoy watching, and we hope we can capture some more great moments in the lives of these majestic birds during 2009. (Our thanks to Karen Anne in Canada who supplied a link to the jpg she'd saved of the first daylight glimpse of the new egg early on Tuesday morning. Under infra-red light the egg looks white, but in daylight we see the richness of its colour.)
Three more excellent photos from Colin Pass have arrived - so here they are for you all to see. Hope you can cope with the first one so early on a Monday morning.......it hardly requires any comment!
The second shows one of the 'gargoyles' very well (the right hand one above the platform).
The third is a close up of th
e falcon just after mating.
e falcon just after mating.What a gorgeous shot!
Nick B ((DWT)
Saturday, 5 April 2008
Aren't Peregrines Perfect!
This year our three cameras and video recorders have captured some of the most intimate moments in a peregrine's life. We've filmed three mating sequences, as well as courtship and egg-laying, and there's much more to come. But thanks to comments left on the blog we were able to retrieve perhaps the most tender moment of all so far, when her fourth egg was laid on Friday 4th April at 19:52.
I don't think it needs any words from me. Just enjoy the video by clicking on the image below.
(New visitors to this blog may wish to read an overview of the peregrine project, or have their names added to our mailing list for major news items.)
I don't think it needs any words from me. Just enjoy the video by clicking on the image below.
(New visitors to this blog may wish to read an overview of the peregrine project, or have their names added to our mailing list for major news items.)
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