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Peregrine Falcons 2007

15th July:

Our nest box camera coverage has come to an end for this year but if we have anything to report on the peregrines in the coming months we will keep the diary updated. The adults are around Sussex Heights all year round, if you are in Brighton it's always worth looking up at the north side of the block to see if you can spot them.

Hopefully we will have a new round of breeding next Spring which we hope we will be able to cover here.

7th July: Learning life skills

We have been very privileged to witness some "catch your own food" training for one of the chicks today.

One of the adult birds flew towards the ledge at the top of Sussex Heights carrying food and making a tremendous amount of noise. It landed next to where a chick was and as it did so dropped the food, the chick immediately dropped off the building and caught the food about a third of the way down and flew off with it.

2nd July: More flying

Both of the chicks have been very active in the last few days, flying with the two adult birds in the area between Sussex Heights and Bedford Towers. It has been fascinating to watch them hovering, motionless in the air and then swooping towards the ground time after time. Both of the chicks are looking strong and healthy and at least neither has needed "rescuing" this year!

24th June: Learning to hunt

Over the last week the two young falcons have spent a lot of time flying with the adult birds. Already they look to be pretty strong flyers and probably all that remains now is for the adult birds to teach the young how to catch their own food!! Once they have mastered that particular art it will be time for them to leave Sussex Heights, never to return.

If you're lucky you can still see the young falcons occasionally in the nest box, especially if it is raining and they decide to take some shelter!

15th June: Taking to the air

The chicks have now taken to the air, one is thought to have been spotted flying by the top of Sussex Heights yesterday and today the female chick was seen on a balcony on the 20th floor of the building as can be seen in this picture.

13th June: Gone walkabout

We're not seeing much of the chicks in the nest box at the moment as they are out on the roof. They may return to the box for shelter if it rains. Both chicks were spotted on the roof this evening along with the two adults.

1st June: Getting bigger (and bolder)

The chicks' appearance is changing rapidly now as they lose their fluffy white downy look and their feathers start to develop.

They are not yet ready to start thinking about flying, and won't be for a couple of weeks, but spent most of today outside the nestbox, leaving early this morning then at about 20.30 this evening the male returned.

22nd May: Ringing the chicks

The two chicks were ringed today and as usual they were also measured and a feather removed for DNA registration.

The first chick, a male was given ring number 14, weighed in at 690 grams while the second chick, a female, given ring 15, was considerably bigger at 950 grams.

One interesting fact emerged during the ringing in that it is thought that the adult female bird is a different one to the female that has been occupying the nest box in the last few years. We will be looking into this further and will report back when we know for sure.

8th May: Growing fast

Just over a week after the first chick hatched there is good and bad news from the nest box. The two chicks that were first seen a week ago are being fed regularly by the adults and are rapidly growing.

It seems that the other two eggs failed to hatch, one of the eggs can still be seen close to the chicks, and if you look closely at the picture above it appears to have a small hole in it. The hole has been visible for a few days and it will not hatch now.

The fourth egg is more of a mystery; it hasn't been seen for a couple of weeks suggesting that it might be out of view under the camera. As with the other egg, after this amount of time it won't hatch.

While not the best of news, it does mean that there is more food for the remaining two chicks as they build up strength for their first flight in a few weeks.

30th April: First chicks hatch

The chicks started to hatch Sunday night/Monday morning and as often happens with this pair, the eggs were moved almost out of sight of our camera!

Our picture shows two chicks in the bottom right hand corner.

Hopefully the chicks might move to a slightly better position for the camera and we will get some good pictures when feeding gets under way.

3rd April: Just checking

The male returns to the nest box and appears to be checking everything is in order with the eggs...

25th March: Fourth egg

A fourth egg appeared this morning and the peregrine pair are now sitting on the eggs pretty much all of the time which suggests there will be no more. We expect the eggs to hatch in the last week of April.

23rd March: Third egg

After an uneventful day on Thursday a third egg has appeared overnight. The birds are not yet sitting on the eggs "full time" which suggests that another is anticipated - presumably sometime on Sunday.

20th March: Second egg & Who am I watching?

A second egg appeared mid-afternoon today as expected, we anticipate the next egg to appear on Thursday or Friday.

One of the most striking differences between male and female peregrines is in their size, the male being about two-thirds the size of the female.

Fortunately our peregrines have co-operated in allowing us to show this by sitting in almost identical poses in the same spot in the nest box. The top picture illustrates how much smaller the male is compared to his mate below.

18th March: First egg

After a week of mild weather, a forecasted cold spell over the next few days meant we were hoping the eggs might have been a bit later than usual this year. However, Sunday morning has seen the arrival of the year's first egg and over the next 2-3 days we should see a couple more eggs in the nest box, hopefully visible on the webcam.

14th March:

Our coverage for the year has started. Currently the peregrines are often to be seen perched on Sussex Heights and have also been seen in the nest box at various times during the day. Peregrines usually produce eggs around the same time every year, meaning we should see some eggs between the 18th and 23rd of March. Although with the recent warm weather it could be any day now...