Derby Cathedral's Peregrines
2010 update - come and watch the peregrines!
Derby's first ever peregrine nest successfully fledged three chicks in July 2006, two in 2007 and four in 2008 and 2009.
Last summer the parent birds reared four chicks to the fledging stage. Shortly after their first flights, one of the female youngsters flew into a building and was killed and the other female (now called Cathy) also injured herself and has been taken into the care of a local falconer where she is doing well. That leaves two male young surviving in the wild.
Even in winter you can sometimes see the parent birds and even one or other young on the tower from the live webcams. Click here to see the webcams - the main picture shows the top of the gargoyles where the birds regularly perch, feed and roost. The webcams are always switched on, day and night.
You can see video clips of last year's breeding season and read the latest news on the diary or blog which is regularly updated. It contains archive photos and video clips showing the highlights from previous years - a valuable resource for schools and researchers.
The peregrine is our most charismatic bird of prey. Sadly, it suffered a rapid demise in the 1950s and 60s due to the use of persistent pesticides, and by the 1970s, peregrines were so scarce that in some years not a single bird was seen in the county.
Since then peregrines have been making a welcome return to their former haunts. In 1984, after an absence of 30 years a pair bred again in the Peak District. By 2004, there were at least 15 nests, the birds using ledges on natural cliffs and quarry faces. Further south a pair adopted Willington Power Station's cooling towers, nesting there between 1993 and 2000, and rearing a total of ten young.
In 2004, one or two peregrines began to adopt Derby Cathedral's tower as a roosting site. The vergers found avian 'body parts' at the foot of the tower, causing the local paper to proclaim that the cathedral was under attack from Satanists! Soon after, the birds themselves were spotted when the vergers went up the tower to change the flag.
The birds began to display to each other in spring 2005 but had no suitable nesting ledge and so left the area in April of that year.
In the spring of 2006 a purpose-made nest platform was installed on the tower and the birds laid their eggs on the platform soon afterwards, rearing three young by July. In 2007 they laid eggs again, this time a clutch of four. Only two hatched but both chicks fledged succesfully in late June.
In 2008, four eggs were laid and all hatched and reached fledging age. At fledging, in late June, three of the young came down to the ground and had to be rescued. One, the only female, was seen for a few days after she was rescued but then disappeared and was presumed dead. The remaining three young learned to fly and catch prey in late July and August before they too drifted off to make their own way in the world.
In 2007 web cameras were put in place to enable live pictures of the birds to be put on the internet and a blog or diary was established to run alongside them. By the end of the breeding season there had been more than 200,000 hits, far exceeding expectations.
In 2008 a further web cam was placed on the tower by Nick Moyes of Derby Museum. It views the birds as they sit above the nest on the gargoyles. Here they roost, feed and mate - thus adding further insights into their lives. In 2009, there were over 530,000 hits to the webcams and blog - a big increase on 2008. People were logging on to watch the Derby birds from Hong Kong to Brazil and from Hungary to South Africa. There were even some hits coming from the centre of the Pacific - maybe from an interested loggerhead turtle!
The Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project is a three-way partnership between the Trust, Derby Museum and Art Gallery and Derby Cathedral. Now the two adults are roosting and feeding on the tower and keeping any intruder birds away, making sure their nest is under their control for 2009.
For more information download our leaflet . The leaflet is slightly out of date but still provides useful background on the peregrines and the project. You can also view the peregrine timeline.
A best-selling DVD specifically made about the Derby peregrines is available for £9.99 - click here to find out more.
Peregrine pictures by David King.
