There was a Peregrine and Cathedral Tower Open Day today, organised by the cathedral staff, between 11am and 4pm on Monday 3rd May, with a (rare) chance to climb the tower and also to view the nest platform and the off-duty adult from Cathedral Green.
Teas/coffees were available and there was a small display about the project plus peregrine masks for childrne to colour in.
Tower tours were at 11am and 12 noon with further ones through the afternoon though the early afternoon ones may well be booked up because a school is bringing two classes along to see what's what.
There were telescopes available for you on the Green with DWT volunteers on hand to point out where the platform is, where the birds perch and hopefully a chance to see the male bring food into the female too.
Bring warm clothing because although the sun may shine and it should be dry, there's a cold wind blowing!
Don't forget to scroll down to the previous post to get all the latest news and photos of the newly arrived chick.
Two Reports on the happenings of the day are appended at the bottom of this post. Thanks to our volunteers who generously "manned" the Watchpoint during the day.The Project Team
Here are some of today's photos you've captured.
Tedgaytor
Twwitcher
Tedgaytor
pigeonfancier
WatchPoint Report part 1.
Watchpoint Report Part 1 - 10.30am to 2.00 pm
Not a great deal to report this morning unfortunately. We never saw the falcon from the ground although, as we were setting-up at about 10.30, one of the adults flew into the nest platform and wasn't seen to emerge (although we were quite busy and may have missed it leaving again). The tiercel spent two long periods sat on the J of Jury's Inn giving good views.
On the Tower Tours, we saw the remains of several prey items including Song Thrush and Little Grebe as well as seeing the tiercel fly off from Jury's Inn at about 11.45 and landing briefly on the nest platform in a rain shower at around noon before returning to his perch on the J.
Finally, to thank people for coming down and for all your donations.
Andy & Chris M.
Watchpoint Report Part 2 - 2.00pm to 4.00pm
Things remained quiet for the first part of the afternoon with the tiercel continuing to sit on the Jury's Inn sign. During a particularly heavy shower he again returned to the tower to take shelter underneath one of the arches above the nest platform for a while, before disappearing. He was later seen back on the hotel lettering. There was a steady stream of people including a large party of school children, as well as some Dutch visitors who were suitably impressed! It was also good to meet several of you who have contributed to the blog. Unfortunately from the ground it was not possible to see the exciting developments taking place on the scrape, as both falcon and chicks stayed well hidden. However, on the last tower tour we were treated to some lovely views of the newly hatched fourth chick, whilst watching the live images on the monitor in the bell ringing chamber. Perfect timing!! The chicks were fed for around ten minutes, after which the falcon then settled back down to brooding them.
Helen, Brian & Margaret
