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Peregrine Diary 2004

23rd June:

Good news about the young male chick - he has made it back to Sussex Heights and the rest of the family. All five peregrines have been seen together on top of the building and there has been much flying activity too.

9th June:

At approximately 6.30 in the evening of 9th June the male chick was found at the foot of Sussex Heights having fallen off the roof while trying to fly.

He doesn't appear to be injured and the parents will be able to find him easily and care for him until he is ready to start flying.

1st June: Getting bigger

Since the ringing last week the chicks have rapdily grown. Their brown feathers are now becoming much easier to see as they lose their white down.

One of the chicks, the male, has started wandering around the area outside the nestbox. The chicks are also starting to flap their wings more, building up strength as they get closer to fledging.

22nd May: Ringing of the chicks

The three chicks were ringed on Thursday 20th May and at the same time were measured, weighed and a feather removed from each so that their DNA could be recorded.

It is thought that two of the chicks are female weighing in at about 1kg each while the male was 725 grams.

This is the first year that the clutch has been a mix of male and female chicks, last year the parents gave birth to 3 males having previously only given birth to female chicks.

17th May:

Feeding time again!! The two chicks in the foreground are trying to eat the same tasty morsel while the chick in the background tucks into a plentiful supply of food offered by the adult male.

14th May:

The chicks at feeding time looking noticeably bigger.

10th May:

The three chicks with one of the adults.

8th May: Three chicks

Some slightly sad news is that one of the chicks has died. For the last few days only three chicks have been seen in the nestbox. It is not uncommon for one of the chicks not to survive the first few days after hatching. On a more positive note the remaining three chicks are getting bigger and the adults are starting to feed the chicks larger pieces of food.

Below is a picture taken from the nestbox on Friday 7th May showing the three remaining peregrine chicks and the adult male.

29th April: Fourth chick has hatched

Until now the fate of the fourth peregrine chick was unknown, but as the picture below shows all four eggs have now hatched. The picture captured shows the adult male feeding the young chicks, they are being brooded mostly by the female at the moment and this will continue for the next few days as the chicks build up their strength with regular feeds.

28th April: The chicks have hatched

Yesterday afternoon revealed that at least three of the chicks have now hatched, they were seen being fed by the adult male. Over the next few days we should start seeing more of the chicks, they are currently just out of the camera's view, we will however try to post some pictures as soon as we have them.

20th April: Any day now

The hatching is expected within the next couple of days, currently the parents are taking turns to tend to the eggs. The handover between the two is a well-drilled exercise, when one parent leaves the other takes over in little more than a minute or two.

30th March: Picture of the eggs

Yesterday afternoon provided us with the chance to get this picture from the nestbox camera while the parent stood up for a moment before going back to incubate the eggs.

In the bottom centre of the picture there are four eggs in this year's clutch, the fourth egg was probably laid around the 22nd of March. Using this date a rough estimate for hatching is April 18th - 22nd.

19th March: The second egg

Checking the nestbox this afternoon revealed that there are now at least two eggs in the box, however it looks very much like another was on the way.

18th March: The first egg

Today has seen the arrival of the first egg, this afternoon the female could be seen sitting on the front ledge of the box. It is expected that we will see a couple more eggs over the next day or two.

11th March:

Our coverage for this year has started. Currently the peregrines are often to be seen perched on Sussex Heights by the nest box. Peregrines usually produce eggs around the same time every year, so we can estimate that this year should see eggs between the 18th and 23rd of March.