Chichester Peregrine Blog

We had a lot of people visiting today.  It seemed that the peregrines knew and decided to cooperate.  The last few days have been very quiet, with both adults spending a lot of time out flying, or sitting on the North side of the cathedral out of the sun.  Today, they sat for most of the afternoon on top of the nest turret and pinnacles on the South where we could see them through telescopes.  They fed the chicks at lunchtime, and again just as we were packing up late afternoon.

All four chicks are getting quite boisterous now, running around inside the turret and flapping their wings, building up strength.  Dad fed them the lunch, and the three girls are now bigger than him!  Their honey-brown juvenile feathers are very clearly visible now, through the wispy white downy feathers. 

Mid-afternoon, both adults suddenly zoomed off in an easterly direction, so I thought “OK, either they’ve seen an irresistible flock of pigeons, or there’s another bird of prey…”  Shortly afterwards, it was confirmed that they’d seen a buzzard and both flew to chase it away before it got too close to the nest.  It soon left.  Can’t say I blame it – I wouldn’t stick around for long if I had both adult peregrines attacking me!

This morning started with torrential rain, and remained grey and drizzly most of the day.  The four siblings spent most of the day huddled up together to keep warm and dry, but did get up once in a while to stretch their wings, walk around, preen, and feed themselves on leftovers, before going back to sleep.  When it started raining hard again in the afternoon, mum popped into the nest to check they were all OK and keeping dry, before finding somewhere sheltered elsewhere on the cathedral to sit herself.

The afternoon ended with mum bringing in food.  She took it just below the camera to prepare it out of the nest, and immediately all four chicks hopped down off the box to get fed – she couldn’t tear it up quickly enough for them – one of the girls started helping herself! 

Our chicks are changing noticeably day by day, getting big and strong.  Their facial markings are now very prominent, as are their wing feathers.  They’re busy plucking their fluffy white baby feathers out, exposing the new primaries growing underneath. 

While the Cathedral bells tolled the 4 chicks of our peregrine family were ringed tonight.  After a hearty meal they were in for a surprise, when Graham Roberts and Phil turned up to cause mayhem for the adults and ring the chicks.  There was great excitment when we dicsovered there were 3 females and 1 male.  All are healthy and had full crops from their meal and were successfully ringed and replaced in the nest.  By the time we left around 9.30 all was quiet on the Cathedral spire. A very successful day. See picture below and in the May gallery and video on the link from the Home page.

We had a disappointing start today – the electricity was down in the Cathedral, so we couldn’t get live views of the nest until mid afternoon.  When it came back on, the sun was out, and the chicks were all sitting in the shade, hard to see clearly.  On top of that, the adults were both out of sight for most of the day, so all we had was video.  It was very frustrating.

Around 4.00 we saw dad fly south and expected him to return with dinner.  About 20 minutes later, we noticed mum was looking twitchy and somewhat irritated.  She then headed out to find dad, returning after only a few minutes with him in tow.  They gave a wonderful display for several minutes, flying leisurely together over the Cathedral and surrounding gardens.

Then, time for action – mum suddenly headed north-west and stooped in a fast dive, disappearing behind buildings.  She returned to the nest a few moments later clutching a pigeon.  She dropped into the turret and proceeded to pluck the pigeon as normal.  The chicks were all hungry, and approached the front of the nest box, lining up for their share.

After a bit of feeding, mum returned to plucking the rest of the pigeon, with the hungry chicks watching intently.  Then one of them decided he (or she) had had enough of waiting, and stepped off the edge of the box into the turret below!  What an exciting moment for our young chick!  Well, it was exciting for us watching it anyway, I think he was too focussed on reaching dinner to realise the big step he’d just taken!  Two of the others followed when they saw he was being fed out of their reach.  It wasn’t a very dignified drop, but they made it.  One walked around exploring the turret a little before heading for food.  We thought the fourth (who had been the first to be fed) was going to stay in the nest, but just before 5.00, he joined his siblings on the turret floor.  Now the parents have got no chance of controlling them – they’re off!

If you saw mum catch the pigeon, please add a comment and let us know where it happened – thanks!

Pictures taken from RSPB video.

Our four little chicks aren’t even two weeks old, still fluffy, white and very wobbly, and yet they’re already showing signs of independence.  They’ve approximately trebled in size since hatching, and are already moving around, flapping their wings, preening (each other as well as themselves!), and trying to feed themselves on leftovers from dinner.  Mum and Dad are spending hours at a time out of the nest to encourage them.  It’s working!

Just thought you all might like to see a picture of Mum and Dad feeding the chicks – both aprents seem to be really camera -shy in this shot!!!

Picture from RSPB video

Today we had exciting visitors – Red Kites!  A pair of them were flying very high in the thermals over the cathedral, along with a buzzard.  The peregrines didn’t take any notice because they were too high to be a threat.  However, the buzzard returned on his own later and got too close – one of the peregrines went for him and they had an aerial battle, grabbing at each other.  Our bird won and peace was restored.

After this, both parents have been out of the nest for a few hours – still either on or very close to the cathedral to keep an eye on the chicks.  This is perhaps a few days earlier than usual, but with the warm weather, and all threats seen off, it’s not surprising.  They brought a meal in mid-afternoon.  Since hatching just over a week ago, our chicks have doubled in size and are starting to move around a bit.  All four look strong and healthy.

On Thursday we were very excited to see something extraordinary going on in the nest.  For the first time, we saw both parents feeding the chicks together – normally one would feed while the other sits outside.  This time, they each had some food, Dad was feeding Mum as well as the chicks, and she was also feeding them.  You can see a few minutes of this wonderful recording if you go to the Cloisters Café.

At one point in the afternoon a buzzard and a sparrowhawk were seen flying in the area at the same time, neither particularly aggressive – one parent went after each, and both mum and dad returned quickly to the cathedral.

Later, dad had obviously had enough excitement for the time being, and completely ignored a buzzard flying high above the cathedral while he had a rest on the north side of the spire.  Mum was sitting on the nest and, realising he wasn’t going to chase it away, she left the nest – we thought to go after the buzzard – but instead she went after dad, squawking loudly, obviously not pleased with him.  They both flew around each other for a minute before returning to their original positions.  By this time, the buzzard had left of his own accord, presumably having decided it was best to avoid this mad house!

All four chicks are doing well – we caught a few glimpses of them through the day, and they look healthy, getting bigger and stronger by the minute!