Growing fast!

The two chicks are growing very fast, indicating that they are feeding well.

The third egg is almost certainly not going to hatch now, but it is interesting to note that only a couple of days ago, both the chicks came out eggs that size!

Two chicks

So far, two chicks have arrived and both appear to be doing fine. They are both taking food and are growing fast.

It looks like the third egg may not hatch, just like last year.

An Announcement

Family Notice

Christopher Robin and Bella

are delighted to announce the arrival

of two peregrine falcon chicks

at Tewkesbury Abbey on 15th and 16th May.

 (The third egg may hatch in the next day or two.)

This is the moment that the second chick emerged exhausted from its egg, watched by its dad.

Both seem to be doing just fine, and the older chick is already begging for food, and eating what is offered.

Fame!

The Tewkesbury Abbey Peregrines have just been mentioned LIVE on Radio 3.

To hear it for yourself, go to :-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00051dy

The interesting bit is 46 minutes into the program.

It will be available to listen for 30 days.

Thanks to Mike Smart and presenter Petrock Trewlany for this!

As of 5pm yesterday (May 14th), there were still 3 eggs and no chicks.

Watch this space for news.....

Nearly there!

It's only a day or two now until the first egg is due to hatch!

The weather over the last day or two has been somewhat wet. Here is a soggy CR keeping the eggs warm and dry.

Housework

Bella spent a few minutes tidying up the nesting tray before returning to her incubation duties!

(Sorry, there's no sound on this video for some reason.)

Just a few days to go!

The excitement is building as there are just a few days to go before the eggs are due to hatch.

Here is a clip of  CR handing over incubation duties to Bella.

Incubation

Bella does the majority of the incubation, but she does have to leave the nest to feed, in which case CR takes over.

Here she is returning, and CR leaves the immediately so that she can take over again. 

On another occasion, he ignored her for 50 minutes before he gave in!

And now it's three!

The third egg arrived sometime on Thursday night/Friday morning.

Here is CR bringing some breakfast to Bella.

Live video feed

Just like last year, I've set up a live video feed so that anybody in the churchyard to the east of the Abbey can watch the activity on the peregrine nesting tray. While the birds are sitting on the tray they are usually out of sight, so this is the only good way to see them.

(Note that the video is not available on the internet as there is no connection up the tower.)

Here are the setup instructions which have been tested on an Android phone and an iPad. Hopefully they will work for you too!

With an internet connection (eg at home), go to the Google Play store (Android) or the App Store (iPad). Search for and install the application called KViewPro.

Now standing in the churchyard between the Abbey and the Gander Lane car park where you can see the nesting tray, search for and connect to the WiFi network called “Falcons”. The password is “peregrine”.

Now run the KViewPro application, choose "config" (or "device") and create a new device and set it up as follows :-

Device Name = tower

Login Type = IP/DOMAIN

IP Address = 192.168.2.2

Media Port = 9000

User Name = guest

Password = peregrine

Then select channel 1 and maximise the screen to get the best picture.

A word of caution.
These are wild birds who catch and kill other birds for food. Therefore there may be scenes which some may find upsetting. There is also a fairly high mortality rate (60%) of peregrine chicks, and it is not certain that all the chicks which hatch will fledge.

Change over

Bells seems to want to do the lion's share of the incubating the two eggs so far laid, but she does let CR do some of it.

Here they are changing over.

The second egg arrives

The first egg was laid at about 16:00 on Sunday 7th April, but the camera didn't get a good enough look to know exactly when it happened.

The second egg arrived in the early hours of Wednesday 10th. Here is the moment shortly afterwards when Bella carefully stepped away.

Chances are that there will be another egg over the next few days.

Two eggs, so far!

The waiting is over!

 

Bella has laid two eggs so far. The first one was on April 7th, the second on April 10th.

There could well be a third over the next few days.

(Apologies for the low quality screenshot. Hopefully I can get some better photos/video shortly.)

Mating

It can't get more promising than this!

Thanks to Dave Keen for this photo.

CR bringing prey

It is usual for the males to bring prey to the females to prove they are able to provide for any offspring.

Here is CR bringing something for Bella.

What's not easy to see is that she rather clumsily grabs his leg instead of the food. That must have hurt!

Making a scrape

Here is a video of the male CR making a scrape in the gravel on the nesting tray.

Peregrines don't bother with making a nest as many other birds do!

Back again

It certainly looks like Bella and CR are ready to breed in 2019!

Lots of activity!

If you were lucky enough to be visiting Tewkesbury Abbey today you will have heard and seen lots of peregrine activity!

What is really exciting is that there were THREE birds flying around, but my photographic skills didn't manage to get a picture with all three of them. Here is a photo of a male (CR? aka Christopher Robin, upper) and female (Bella?, lower).  They were putting on a great courtship display, sometimes holding talons in mid flight, spiralling towards the ground.

The third bird, who I only caught a brief glimpse of as he left a tree in the churchyard, had juvenile plumage with a lighter coloured front. It (I couldn't be sure if it was male or female) was being noisily chased off by the other two birds between their displays.

It is highly probably that this is Paddington, as I understand that a juvenile may come back to the place where it hatched at the beginning of the following season.

Afterwards, Bella sat on the tower while CR flew around and around defending his territory, keeping en eye out for intruders.

I have also heard on the grapevine that CR and Bella have been seen mating on the tower, so all is looking very promising indeed for the 2019 breeding season.

Bella visits the nesting tray

Bella has at last made a brief visit to the nesting tray.

She came back an hour later as well.

This time she flies away just as CR dives by. You can just see him in the top right part of the screen about 2 seconds after she flies off.

Keeping us guessing

Just as in previous years, Bella and CR are keeping us guessing! Will they or won't they breed?

The usual sequence of events is that in March, they are rarely seen, but that in mid April they start to appear on the nesting tray calling noisily to each other.

CR usually sits on the right hand edge of the tray, so this year, a new camera has been positioned to get a bird's eye view of where he lands.

In the absence of a peregrine, a pigeon kindly acted as a stand-in to test the motion detection function of the camera!

Bella in the sun

Bella was sitting on the west end of the Abbey today.

She was keeping watch for CR, who didn't seem to be around today...

More sightings

There have been several more sightings recently.

Bella is on the tower and CR flies around (sometimes quite fast) trying to impress her! This is usually accompanied by lots of noisy screeching.

 Here she is sitting on the NW corner of the tower.

and here inside the NE pinnacle. I've never seen her sitting here before.

Welcome to the 2019 breeding season (hopefully!)

Things are starting to look promising!

Peregrines are not the quietest of birds, and several people have commented to me that they have heard lots of squawking coming from the direction of the Abbey.

I popped in tonight to see if I could hear or see anything. Only one (quiet) bird was visible right on top of the SE pinnacle, and from its size, I think that this is Bella.

The other feedback I have had has been about the talk which took place on the 19th of January. There have been lots of positive comments which has been very nice to hear. The evening raised some £300 for Tewkesbury Abbey, and also nearly £100 for the Gloucestershire Raptor Monitoring Group. Very many thanks to all who supported this event. Chances are that it will be repeated in a couple of years time.

 

The Tewkesbury Civic Society have already booked me for their meeting on January 9th 2020 to talk about the Abbey's Peregrines. Hopefully there will be something about the 2019 season to talk about!

Peregrine Talk

On Saturday January 19th at 7.30pm there will be an illustrated talk in the Abbey's visitor centre. This will be a chance to learn all about peregrine falcons from the experts of the Gloucestershire Raptor Monitoring Group. 

You can also hear the story of Christopher Robin, Alice, Bella and Paddington at Tewkesbury. 

Tickets will be £5 and are on sale in the Abbey shop or at the door. 

An evening not to be missed!

Preparing for 2019

2018 was certainly an exciting year for Tewkesbury Abbey's peregrines.

Paddington hasn't been seen for quite a while, but there no reason to doubt that he's fully fledged and is looking for somewhere to over winter.

Meanwhile, Bella has been seen on the nesting tray which is a promising sign for 2019.

At some stage, the gravel will be replaced so that they have a nice clean nest for next year's breeding season.