Egg Number Three (and now No. Four)

UPDATE THURSDAY 17th MARCH
A fourth egg was spotted early this morning!  Screengrab by Kate to whom many thanks:

Kate, our intrepid web cam watcher in Devon, spotted the third egg between 5 and 6pm today (14th March) and took this screenshot:

Quite some variety in colouration there.....we wonder what egg number four will look like!
It can be expected sometime during Wednesday night or during Thursday.
Incubation will then become a serious matter for our female who will do the bulk of the work.
Being a bigger bird than the male, her brood patch, where the feathers have fallen out to allow direct contact between the eggs and her bare skin, does a much better job at keeping them all warm than that of the male.
He will do all the hunting and bring food back for her.
She will leave her eggs briefly to feed and preen and the male will do his best to keep the eggs covered while she is away.
Then, often within the hour, she will return and bully the male off the eggs and take over again herself.

The Project Team

Second egg

A second egg is visible this morning - thanks to Jean and Angela N for the heads up! 

It looks to be a lot paler than the first egg and we recall that last year, the first egg was also very pale and failed to hatch. We hope this one is OK. It will be interesting to see how they develop.

First egg and a close shave! Update 12th March

Update Saturday 12 March: a second egg is visible this morning - thanks to Jean and Angela N for the heads up! It looks to be a lot paler than the first egg and we recall that last year, the first egg was also very pale and failed to hatch. We hope this one is OK!

After days of delays due to weather, and having to keep away whilst an essential survey of the stonework after a small piece of stone had fallen off a few days ago, we finally managed to get access to the tower today to clean the platform and cameras. Nick M abseiled down to do the work, whilst Nick B monitored from inside, and gave feedback from our monitors via walkie-talkie.
We finished around 2:30pm and, to our great surprise, the female returned to the nest platform very soon after we left and promptly laid her first egg of 2022, fully eight days earlier than last year (17th)!
These screenshots were captured by Kate in Devon just before 5pm:

The clean up went well. As you can see the gravel was cleared of prey remains and some new gravel was added. The scratched camera cover on the Axis camera (Nestcam 1) was replaced, and the camera itself being slightly lowered and angled so the whole of the gravel side of the nest platform is now in view.

We feel very lucky to have achieved this 'cleanup'. Once nesting (i.e. egg-laying) has started, we would have been breaking the law had we then disturbed a nesting 'Schedule 1' bird. That would never have been our intention, and so we're pleased things worked out just right. 

Checking the online cameras prior to readjustment

Camera cover replacement and adjustment

Our thanks to Kate and Phoebe for being so alert!!

The Project Team

Talk by Ed Drewitt and a fine photo

Last November, Ed Drewitt, author of The Urban Peregrine, gave this interesting talk to Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust which you can watch at any time: 
Urban peregrines with Ed Drewitt - YouTube .

It is well worth watching - and there are some great questions towards the end too.

Last week, photographer Dave Farmer visited the cathedral here in Derby and took some photos of the female on the nest platform. Here's just one of them for your delectation! What a handsome bird....

Photo by Dave Farmer ( gdfotos.co.uk ) 

The pair on the nest platform

Kate, one of our keenest web cam watchers who is based in Devon, captured these screenshots today (16 February) showing the pair on the nest.

So it is looking good for the coming breeding season. You may be lucky to catch some display or even mating though the latter usually takes place away from the cameras!

At some point fairly soon we will need to clean up the nest and realign the cameras.....but not today with this gale force wind! The nest platform faces east so avoids getting the worse of the weather - both wind and rain.....

The Project Team

Good signs....

Kate (from Devon, a regular web cam watcher over many years) captured this screenshot today showing both the male and female peregrine on the nest platform - so that is a very encouraging sign.

We can expect to see them bowing and 'e-chupping' to each other over the next few weeks.
Let us know in the 'comments' what you see!

The pair on the nest platform 29th January 2022


The project team

HNY to our peregrine pair & blog followers

As the new year dawns, our peregrines will be beginning to sense the oncoming breeding season and, should the mild weather continue, it might be worth checking the webcams for any signs of display.
Let us know if you see any!

Derby Cathedral as seen from the old Assembly Rooms car park

Meanwhile, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, which manages this project, is advertising for a one year Engagement Trainee post to help with this project but mainly to try to protect peregrine nest sites elsewhere in the county, for example, nests in disused quarries which are very vulnerable to the theft of eggs and especially chicks for sale to the lucrative Middle East market.

To find out more see: https://jobs.derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/job/224424

The Project Team