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Peregrine Falcons 2008

Welcome to another year of the Society's coverage of Peregrine Falcons on Sussex Heights.

28th June: Drawing to a close & 5 falcons seen

Yesterday saw the end of our webcam coverage, the juveniles are still around and being taught the vital skills they'll need to survive on their own but are spending very little time in the nest box itself. Yesterday also brought the good news that we still appear to have 3 healthy juveniles as 5 falcons were seen on the roof ledge of Sussex Heights.

We'd like to thank all those who have been following the peregrines' progress over the last few months and we've enjoyed receiving the comments many of you have sent in.

We'll keep the diary updated if anything should happen and hope to see as many of you as possible again next spring!

19th June: 3 juveniles spotted

Sadly we think we have lost one of this year's offspring. One of the adults was seen today doing a bit of lifeskills training, flying around by the top of Sussex Heights clutching a food carcass, being pursued by three rather than four very vociferous youngsters. Over the last weekend we saw no more than five peregrines up on the building at any given time and on checking through the daily coverage from the nest box we have identified birds 22, 23 and 25 but there has been no sign of 24, one of the young males.

Above, the female youngster (23) back in the nest box this week having a snack after her exploits of last week and below, one of the males (25) also popped in the day before.

11th June: If at first you don't succeed...

It seems to be turning into a bit of a trying week for our young female with this trying to fly business.

After being rescued from a back yard on Monday evening this morning she crash landed on a balcony on the 16th floor of Chartwell Court, a block of flats near to Sussex Heights, but as these pictures show she doesn't seem any the worse for it and later took off back to the roof of Sussex Heights. What an absolutely, stunningly beautiful bird she is (didn't really get a chance to appreciate it when she was hissing and snarling at us on Monday evening)!!

9th June: Female chick rescued & returned to roof

This evening we were alerted to the fact that there was a peregrine in a backyard near the foot of Sussex Heights. On inspection it turned out to be the female chick, identified by the ring number 23.

We were able to catch her and return her to the roof of Sussex Heights where our picture shows her. Hopefully this will be the only time in her life when she travels in a lift!!

The chicks grow quickly, but if they attempt to fly before they have fully built up their strength it can be difficult for them to return up to the roof of Sussex Heights...hopefully this will have been the only rescue needing to be carried out this year.

7th June: Little explorers

Unfortunately sightings of any of the peregrines on the webcam have been very few and far between over the last few days. The chicks seem to have taken themselves off to the roof of a balcony on the eastern side of the building. This roof is slightly lower than the ledge the nest box is situated on and it is doubtful that the chicks could get back up to nest box level until they can fly. The adult female did put a few appearances in the box this afternoon and evening.

3rd June: Not so fluffy

The young falcons at 35-36 days old are now starting to spend longer periods outside the nest box. As these pictures show they are rapidly losing their white down and have just a few patches left around their legs, under the wings and a little patch on top of their heads.

When they do come back into the nest box they still make the most of the opportunity to have a look into the camera.

29th May: Pesky chicks

Unfortunately this year's pesky chicks have made a bit of a mess on the camera lens so the pictures now are a bit murky. There's not a lot we can do about it as we can't go and disturb the birds to clean the lens but we'll try to keep you up to date with what we can see from the camera and from ground level...naughty chicks!!!

27th May: Starting to explore

All four chicks seem to be doing well, at 28 - 29 days old the chicks are now in a half-way state between being covered in their fluffy white down and getting their juvenile feathers.

As the chicks are nearly fully-grown, space is starting to become precious in the nest box, and yesterday we saw the first chick venture out onto the ledge in front of the nest box (on the right-hand side of the picture below).

While the chicks probably wont be ready to fly for a couple of weeks they will start to come out of the nest box and explore the roof space around the nest box.

They are also starting to flap their wings more often, not so much in an attempt to fly, but to help build up strength in their flight muscles which need to be as strong as possible for their first flight to be successful.

23rd May: Webcam back online

The updates to the webcam appeared to stop at 21.02 last night due to a problem with our hosting, thank you to those who contacted us to let us know.

The good news is the webcam is now back online and everything should be back to normal, apologies if you tried to look in while the camera was stuck.

19th May: Ringing the chicks

The four chicks were ringed this afternoon, an event not unnoticed by their parents as they circled above and shrieked at their unexpected visitors...

As well as ringing, a range of measurements such as weight and feather length were taken, with the weight allowing us to tell how many male and female chicks we had.

Ring number	Weight	Gender
22	690 grams (1.5 pounds)	Male
23	990 grams (2.2 pounds)	Female
24	690 grams	Male
25	695 grams	Male

As the table above shows, we have 3 males and one female this year. The three males all seem to be pretty equal in weight, and look to be getting their fair share of the food.

We've also got a couple of nest box pictures from yesterday to help illustrate the continual growth of the chicks when compared with the previous pictures.

18th May: Ringing the chicks tomorrow

During the afternoon of Monday 19th the chicks will be taken from the nest box for a short time as they are going to be ringed. This will be from 14.30 and we'll try and get some photos up on the site later in the evening.

Each chick will be measured, weighed and a feather taken so their DNA can be registered.

While the chicks are being ringed the webcam is going to take a break and the updates will stop for a bit. Once the ringing has been completed it will start updating again, which should be by 17.00.

14th May: Where are the chicks?

If you've stopped by to take a look at the webcam in the last couple of days you may have asked yourself "where have the chicks gone?". Don't worry, the chicks haven't disappeared, instead they seem to have realised that if they camp out under the camera (this is at the bottom of the webcam picture) they can't be seen.

Do keep an eye out for the chicks though, if one of the parents brings food into the nest box then a couple of the chicks will usually come out from their hiding spot. As the chicks continue to get bigger and start to stretch their wings we should start to see more of them again.

12th May: 4 healthy chicks

We've had a few (welcome) emails from viewers about the latest video highlights and why it appears one of the chicks wasn't being fed.

The good news is that this was just an unfortunate edit of the video and we still have 4 healthy chicks. One of the difficulties with putting up video highlights is that the feedings can last for over 30 minutes so we aren't always able to show all of the chicks being fed.

The parents are very careful about making sure each chick gets food and will usually keep offering food until the chicks don't want any more or the chicks decide that they would rather go to sleep! In the video, all 4 chicks have quite a large bulge under their neck. This is called a "crop", a place to store food. The crop allows the chicks to eat more food than their stomachs can handle in one go so they can process it over several hours, an ideal time for another snooze.

As is the case with the parents, the female chicks tend to become larger than their male siblings so if you do see a size difference between the chicks this could be because they are a male and a female. This size difference is also one of the main indicators we use when the chicks are ringed to tell their sex, the females generally being 250 - 300 grams (0.55 - 0.65 pounds) heavier than the males.

11th May: Feeding video

It's been a few days since our last video of the chicks so here's one recorded yesterday evening.

It's nearly two weeks since the chicks hatched and here they are tucking into what seems to be one of their increasingly frequent feeds. The last few days have been quite warm and when not being fed the chicks seem to be quite happy to flop out on the nest box floor and sleep, although there was some consternation yesterday for some viewers who looked in and saw the box empty as the chicks had decided to camp out in a "blind spot" under the camera.

8th May: 9 days on

It's been 9 days since the last chick hatched and so far, all four chicks seem to be doing well.

Still staying together to keep warm, the chicks are starting to become more mobile. When one of the parents brings in some food they can sometimes be seen on the webcam shuffling around as a group trying to get the best position. As their fluffy down builds up they'll start to spend less time huddled together as they become better able to regulate their own temperature.

30th April: Feeding time

It may only be a couple of days since the first chicks hatched but already you can see they are starting to put on some weight thanks to the regular feeds roughly every 2 hours.

Here's a video taken this afternoon showing the mother feeding the chicks.

29th April: All four chicks have hatched!

As the morning progressed and we saw another feeding it emerged that we have 4 chicks meaning that they have all successfully hatched.

The picture below shows the 4 chicks being fed with the mother in the centre of the picture and her mate to the right. Over the next few days we should see lots more feeding and we'll get a video up in the next couple of days...

29th April: Third chick & a couple of videos

Although we haven't been able to see it clearly on the camera yet, we think the third chick may have hatched - hopefully this will become clearer later if the female gets up for a moment allowing us to see the chicks.

While we wait for news on the third and fourth chicks here's a couple of videos taken yesterday of the first two chicks...

The first chick hatched overnight, this is the first sighting of it:

The second chick hatched around midday - here's a clip of the two chicks together:

28th April: Second chick

The second of the year's chicks hatched towards the end of the morning, here's a picture showing the two chicks.

One of the other eggs also looks like it is close to hatching so Tuesday morning could reveal a third chick.

We'd also like to apologise if you had difficulty viewing the webcam this morning between 8.30 and 10.30. We had a bit of a glitch with the camera not updating, here's hoping we don't see any more problems...

28th April: First chick hatches!

This morning we caught a glimpse of the first of this year's chicks as seen below.

The wait is now on to welcome the arrival of the second chick, it could be today...

27th April: Hatching latest & unexpected visitors

There was a considerable amount of noise and activity this morning around the top of the building as a third peregrine made its presence felt. All three birds were heard to be calling out and while the male stayed on the eggs the female escorted the intruder away.

We have been able to detect delicate noises coming from one or more of the eggs today and as can be seen from this still a "pip" (or break) in the egg has now appeared in the top of the egg on the right which the female appears to be staring intently at.

26th April: An inspector calls...

This clip appears to show the male coming into the nestbox for a progress report on the eggs. There is a lot of communication between the birds which seems to lead to the female lifting herself up off the eggs so that the male can see them after which he takes himself off again...

23rd April: Getting close to hatching

If you've been watching the webcam over the last 4 weeks you will have seen the adults incubating the eggs. The night and day monotony of keeping their precious eggs safe is a testament to their perseverance, something that seems to have been tested more than usual by the weather this spring with snow in the nestbox and cold winds driving in there pretty much all of the time. But things are all about to change...

From Friday (25th) onwards we're expecting to see the first signs of the chicks hatching, but what's actually going on inside those eggs?

Each chick (or "eyas" as they are sometimes called) has an egg tooth on the top of their beak. The first stage of hatching is to use this tooth to pierce an air sac - allowing it to breathe while breaking out of the shell. The chick uses the egg tooth to break the shell using a process called pipping. During pipping, the chick uses its egg tooth to pip the shell, turn a little bit, make another pip...until eventually cutting the shell into two. In total, the hatching process can take around 2-3 days, it is also during this time that the chicks may start to vocalise from within the egg, especially if they can hear one of the parents. If you're lucky, you might be able to see this on the webcam, an indication of this would be one of the adults looking intently at the eggs or becoming restless.

6th April: Snow!

After a couple of the warmest days of the year so far we've been quickly reminded of the changeable nature of the British weather.

Over the course of the morning a cold Northerly wind has brought with it snow showers as can be seen in the nest box photo below:

In the photo above we can see our Mum-to-be doing her best to keep the eggs warm and sheltered. At the moment the snow is forecast to stay with us until late afternoon with temperatures remaining low overnight. Tomorrow should be warmer with temperatures picking up again as the week goes on.

Let's hope that under our defiant parents are 4 warm and snug eggs...

25th March: Videos

The fourth egg is about to be delivered...

The male finds he has a fourth egg to look after...

At the start of this clip the male can be spotted as he comes in to land on the ledge by the nest box and then wanders into the box to find his parental duties have increased since he was last there.

25th March: Fourth egg

Late morning saw the arrival of our fourth and final egg.

When will the eggs hatch?

Trying to guess when peregrine eggs will hatch is far from an exact science but our current estimate is sometime from the 25th of April onwards, but we should hopefully see all of the chicks hatched by the end of April.

23rd March: A third (Easter) egg

First light this morning brought with it our third egg. In recent years we've usually seen a total of 4 eggs laid, although last year, only two out of the four went on to hatch.

If we are going to get a fourth egg, keep an eye on the webcam throughout Tuesday, as we may be lucky enough to see this egg appear during the day.

20th March: Second egg

Lunchtime saw the arrival of a second egg, although as the weather has been getting colder the adults have been sitting on the eggs a little more than usual. They won't start incubating the eggs fully until the second-to-last or last egg has been laid so don't worry if you see the eggs unattended for a while.

As the eggs are generally laid at similar intervals we could see a third egg during the later part of Saturday or on Easter Sunday.

18th March: First egg

The first egg has appeared overnight and the adults have been seen briefly sitting on it today. They won't start sitting on the eggs for prolonged periods of time until the whole clutch is laid...although they may have to rethink this strategy this weekend when very cold winds are forecast to drive straight into the nest box.

We should see the arrival of the next egg over the next 2-3 days so be sure to keep an eye out on the webcam towards the end of the week.

17th March: Noisy Neighbours

At times the birds can be very vociferous as the video below shows, the female is closest to the camera. The sounds from the nest box can be heard 336 feet down at street level.

7th March: Scraping out a nest

Although the first egg isn't expected for another 1 - 2 weeks you can already see the nest preparations taking place. If you've taken a look through our information page you may have read that the female lays her eggs in a "scrape". This scrape is essentially a hole in the gravel that has been scraped out by the adults.

The female seems to have decided on the spot where she is going to lay her eggs as this video clip shows

You can see the scrape towards the end closest to the camera on the webcam pictures. If you're lucky, you may also see one of the adults lie down in this spot and kick the gravel out using their feet from time to time as the picture below shows...

4th March: A new season

Another breeding season is just about upon us and our nest box camera is up and running, if the birds are on a similar timescale to previous years we should see eggs start to appear around the middle of this month.

We don't leave the camera on after the chicks leave the nest but it is good to be able to look up to the roof and see the two adults up there through the winter months. Quite often we can see one or both of them sitting on a railing by the box surveying their territory or flying around the area. Sometimes it is possible to spot them carrying their prey back to the roof although sometimes this seems to be quite a precarious job as they frequently fly in well below roof level and have to make last second adjustments!!

When the chicks leave the building we always hope that they are going to do well but to date we have had no confirmed sightings of chicks that have come from this nest box, although it is thought one of an earlier year's chicks has taken up residence at Beachy Head.

After our coverage finished last year we did get some news which is probably not too good about one of the 2006 chicks. The smallest male chick had been given ring number 13 and this ring was found last October caught up in some anti-pigeon wire on the roof of a building in Sutton, Surrey. There was no sign of the bird, so we really don't know how or what had happened, although earlier in the day a peregrine had been spotted on the roof tucking into a pigeon.

About the nestbox

A nesting box was put 334 feet up at the top of Sussex Heights in spring 1998. Each year since then the pair has successfully raised chicks, two in 1998, four chicks were born in 1999, but unfortunately one died; details of subsequent years can be found in our archive. In 2002 the birds decamped to the West Pier meaning that we were unable to track their progress.

The pair are believed to be the first pair to breed in an urban environment in the south of England for three years running, hopefully they will continue to produce more chicks in years to come. Peregrine falcons were extinct in Sussex between 1945 and 1990.

Peregrine falcons generally pair up for life and when the chicks are old enough to leave the nest will probably not see their parents again.

If you'd like to find out more about peregrine falcons we have a peregrine information page with more information.

The Society is grateful to the Sussex Ornithological Society for making pictures from their camera in the nestbox available to us.