Chichester Peregrine Blog

The first egg is starting to hatch right now (3pm) – if you can, watch on live webcam, link from our home-page.  Mum is sitting tight at the moment, but she will move at some point, exposing the newly hatched chick.  They normally feed new chicks within the first hour or two, so it’s worth watching closely…

The first egg is hatching as I am writing this.  3.00 pm today!!

We’ve got one very hot mama, panting in the heat, sitting on – oh dear, still 4 eggs!  Waiting with baited breath for the first chick to appear…  Pop to the cathedral to share in the anticipation if you can, or keep an eye on the webcam via our home-page – be warned, once you start watching, it’s very hard to look away in case you miss anything!

There hasn’t been much to see at the cathedral today – mum was sitting on the north side of the spire in the shade for a long time before going back into the nest.  Dad was seen flying very high before disappearing from view.

The chicks are due to hatch any moment – we’ve still got 4 eggs now, but it won’t be long…  

Well ok maybe it wasn’t the whole day – but certainly this afternoon she was relaxing and sunning herself whilst Dad was in charge of the eggs!  a few stretching exercises, inspection of the talons and a quick wash and brush up before a fly around and then everything is back to normal and she is moaning at him to go get supper.  I wonder how long it will be before his famous ready-meals appear on the menu again.

Until Sunday things had been very relaxed in the nest turret, but when the weekend’s nestcam footage was reviewed an amazing episode came to light.The female Chichester bird had been panting in the hot sun whilst brooding. She suddenly began bristling the feathers on her back and spread her tail feathers, pressing them down onto the pebbles in the nestbox. This continued for several minutes until a male bird appeared in shot, standing around a foot from the female, as she remained on the eggs.Within seconds, she dragged herself into a standing position, feathers bristling as she made herself as large and intimidating as possible. The male bird is glimpsed moving away to the other side of the turret. She then rapidly moves to confront him whilst apparently shielding her eggs, and then seems to swipe at out-of-shot the male with a wing tip. He then burst across the front of the camera in a dark blur as he evidently decided to escape before getting hurt!

It seems the birds have been struggling with the sudden heatwave.  For the first couple of days they were sitting on the north side of the cathedral in the shade, although yesterday I did see dad preening in the sun after mum took over incubation duty from him.  I’ve just been watching the live footage, and mum is panting hard while sitting on the eggs in the sun, obviously very hot.  I think they’ll be pleased when the temperature drops a bit.

Great news – the webcam connection has been fixed and is now working nicely. Even more exciting is that the camera’s faulty night-vision has been sorted-out. It was a matter of changing to a more powerful battery and no approach to the nest turret was made.

We can now watch the birds at night for what is thought to be the first time!

Having reported last night that it is now available, I notice this morning it is not working.  Sorry about this, the fault unfortunately is with the connection to the server.  Let you know as soon as I can that it is fixed.

The live webcam is now available via a link on the home page of www.chichesterperegrines.co.uk.  Please note it is only available between 7 am and 7 pm (don’t ask!).  The live picture is really good quality.  Well done Carnyx and the RSPB.