Flying!

 The last video wasn't too clear as to whether P4N flew back to the tray. I suspect that what actually happened was that she managed to cling to the sloping stonework to the side of the tray and what the camera saw was her arriving back.

There's no doubt this time that she is able to fly!!!

 She ended up grounded in a garden on the other side of the Abbey a little later, and had to be rescued by the Vale Wildlife Hospital at Beckford the following morning.

When she was looked at by the vet, it turns out that she had received an injury and which left her blind in one eye. This meant that she will unable to be returned to the wild and hopefully will find somewhere to live as part of a captive breeding programme.

Flying?

 It's not possible to see exactly what's happened here, but it looks like P4N has just flown back to the tray. She certainly wasn't there a few minutes earlier as P7N has just been fed alone by the adult female Bella.

 

Hopefully more behavior like this will be seen over the next few days...

 

Just two chicks now.

On Monday 24th May, licensed BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) ringers handled and ringed two of the chicks, both females. Each chick was given a unique metal ID ring (right leg) and an orange colour ring (left leg). The orange ring codes were P4N and P7N

They were then measured and weighed, coming in at 879g and 824g respectively. For 21 days old they were very well fed - we have been monitoring their prey which includes mostly starlings and feral pigeons.

Volunteers from the British Mountaineering Council helped access the nest and chicks. Sadly, despite the fact that the ringing was carried out at exactly the approved time in terms of the chick's age, and the climber carefully abseiling to the nest location slowly and carefully, one of the chicks (highly unusually) moved away from the nest tray and fell, sadly not surviving the fall.

Naturally such an event is taken very seriously and all procedures have been reviewed to ensure this is minimised at any future nests.

The lead ringer present on Monday is one of the most experienced Peregrine workers in the UK and has ringed 350 chicks in 14 years; this is the first casualty (0.3%) arising from such intervention. The good news is that next year our nest tray will be replaced with a much wider and deep nest tray which will be safer for the chicks.

The ringing of the chicks contributes to a wider study - we know that some chicks, especially males, from Gloucestershire stay local while others, especially females may move into the Midlands and further afield. The females head off further afield looking for males in new territories to avoid inbreeding. It will be interesting to know if these two chicks are re-sighted and if so where they end up. 

 

Well fed

 At nearly three weeks old, the three chicks are thriving and are growing rapidly. Have a look at the sizes of their crops!

Their feathers are starting to show through.

 

Cuteness overload!

 The chicks are now 12 days old and as you can see are growing fast.

 The adult birds don't need to brood them all the time now, in fact they are too big to fit under CR although Bella can just about do it.

Growing fast.

 The three chicks are doing very well and are growing fast.

 It's "time" for a mummy cuddle!

A bundle of fluff!

 What appears to be a bundle of fluff is actually three newly hatched peregrine falcon chicks!

Here is a clip of their dad CR keeping an eye on them.

It's usually the female who does the brooding while the male brings in prey, so it is actually rather unusal to see dad doing this. 

 

Hatching

 All three eggs have now hatched!

Hatching took place on the 3rd and 4th of May.

Here is a video of CR brooding them, and you can see the chick just emerging from the egg nearest the camera.

 

On the radio!

 I've been on the radio!

BBC Radio Gloucestershire got in touch for an interview, and I was happy to oblige.

You can hear it at HERE

Go to 45 minutes into the programme for my bit!

(It should remain available for a few weeks.)

You will hear from the programme that we now have three eggs.

Here is a photo of a changeover.

Hopefully, I'll be able to obtain some videos soon.

Incubation

 Incubation is well under way.

Here is Bella looking after her four eggs.

Only about 3 weeks to go now...

FOUR!!!

 There are now four eggs being incubated!

This is more than in any previous year, and if all goes well, it's going to be very crowded on the nesting tray in a few weeks time.

Here is Bella leving the tray on Easter Day revealing what she has been sitting on.

The times and dates that each egg was laid are :-

Egg #1 = 12:40 on 26/3/21

Egg #2 = 22:30 on 28/3/21

Egg #3 = 06:30 on 31/3/21

Egg #4 = 01:00 on 4/4/21

Breeding season 2021 under way!

 The first egg of the 2021 breeding season has been laid, on or about the 26th March. This makes it the earliest that an egg has appeared on the Abbey tower.

 

If things follow the same way as in previous years, we can expect three eggs, laid about 2-3 days apart. Incubation is about 29-32 days from the day the last (or penultimate) egg is laid, so this will put hatching at about May 1st.

 Watch this space!

Bella getting comfortable

 Things are looking very promising for the 2021 breeding season.

Here is the female Bella on the nesting tray. After a little bit of scraping with her feet, she lay down and moved a few stones around.

The WiFi link is operational.

 

As in previous years, 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.

As of March 26th, the peregrines are sitting on some eggs, and by the beginning of May, these should have hatched.

 

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!

 

*** If you can get it to work on an i-phone, please let me know in the comments below. ***

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 manually 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. 

Donations.

If you want to donate to the project, please click HERE.

Remember to put the word "Peregrine" in the comments box!

Both birds getting the tray ready

 The new gravel has been in place for just a few days, and both birds have been seen making a "scrape" in the stones.

 

Here are the male (CR) and then the female both getting it ready for the forthcoming breeding season.

(Apologies for the lack of sound. Hopefully this will be sorted out before too long.)

New Gravel!

 The nesting tray has been serviced!

 Today, the tray was taken back inside the tower and cleaned. After it was poked back through the louvres, it was provided with a brand new layer of gravel. The lack of gravel was probably the reason that last year's breeding season ended in failure.

Hopes are high for 2021. Both birds have been seen on the tower, indeed the male was on the tray just a few minutes before it was serviced.

Peregrine update

 The lockdown has meant that getting material for this blog is not all that easy. I was able to nip out this morning for a short cycle ride in the winter sunshine.

Both birds were on the Abbey tower occasionally calling to each other.

Lets hope for a succesdsful breeding season this year.

 

Two birds sighted!

 It's been difficult recently to get any photos of the peregrines from the video camera in the tower, however this morning I was lucky enough to be passing with my camera.

There are TWO peregrines in this photo - can you spot them?

 

In case you can't see them, here they are circled.

The female Bella is above on the lead drainage channel, and the male CR is at the bottom left on the stone ledge.

 

A pair of peregrines

 Opportunities to see what the video camera has captured over the lockdown period have been very few and far between, but I did manage to recover the recorder this morning.

On reviewing the videos, it was nice to see that both Bella and CR were still very much in evidence and as you can see from this video clip, they are getting on just fine!

 Unfortunately, the sound isn't working, and the camera is too far back at the moment, cropping the top and bottom of the video. I need to get it properly set up again sometime...

Not this year....

The adult birds are still incubating, but it's now too late for the single egg to hatch.

It's now around 40 days, and it should have hatched after 32 days or so.

 

Sadly it must be infertile, as were eggs in 2018 and 2019. 

So I'm afraid that there won't be any peregrine chicks this year.

Not long now

By my calculations, the egg should be hatching within a day or so.

Whilst on our cycle ride today, we were lucky to see a changeover of incubation duties with Bella leaving and CR starting his stint.

The above image is a screenshot on my phone from the live Wi-Fi video link.

An update

Having obtained special permission to go up the tower last week, the Wi-Fi link from the live camera was reinstated.

Here is a screenshot of the video taken tonight on my phone.

If you want to watch the video yourself, the instructions are the same as last year.

Click HERE for details.

Having studied the video footage, there is just one egg being incubated and it is due to hatch sometime around 8th-10th May, ie shortly!

Incubating!

While CR was bathing in the evening sunshine...

... his mate Bella was on the cold side of the Abbey tower....

... INCUBATING!

Lock-down up-dates

We may be on lock-down, but the peregrines are carrying on with their lives regardless!

Updates from the video camera in the tower will be very few and far between from now on, so the only pictures will be from the churchyard below.

Here is a lovely photo taken by Jay Banbrooke of CR in flight on the left and Bella standing on the top of the tower.

I will try to keep this page as up to date as possible, but in the circumstances this will be difficult.

In case you were wondering....

How are our peregrines getting on so far in 2020?

Just fine!

I put some more gravel in the tray the other day, but they've already lost some of it overboard.