30 Days Wild Day 22: Chichester Fledge Watch

The big moment is finally here! Well in actual fact, it's already passed as I type this but when I was with the peregrines on Monday, the juveniles hadn't officially fledged yet. We were on "Fledge Watch" all day and those birds certainly kept us on the edge all day. All three of the juvys spent the majority of the day perched on the turret crenelations, flapping their wings repeatedly and a few times looked like they might just make the leap. I got a crick in my neck from looking up all day. 

The adults stayed tucked inside alcoves on the spire during the morning as we had some torrential rain and peregrines really don't enjoy flying in the wet. As much as I would have liked the young to fledge while I was there, I knew the weather would have a big effect on whether they went or not and I wasn't holding out much hope. Still, it was lovely to see them on such great display all day and it meant we had something to show the visitors most of the time. Of course, the most frustrating part for me was knowing that once I went home, I wouldn't be able to carry on following their progress on the webcam. At least during "Hatch Watch", there was always something to be monitored on the camera but with the chicks outside of the frame, I would have to miss the moment they branched out.

I was pleased to be able to get decent views of them before they left though. They are brown and cream versions of their parents with beaks that look almost blue but they certainly have the peregrine call down to a fine art! 

The first two juveniles fledged yesterday and the third went today. I'm hoping someone might have been around to capture some photographic evidence as I feel like I've missed out on one of their biggest moments! Sadly, I don't think the cathedral staff would take too kindly to me camping out on their lawn. I have two shifts at the project next week which is actually the final week of monitoring. I don't want it to end!

30 Days Wild Day 15: The Pigeon and the Peregrine

Are you fed up with peregrines yet? If you are, I'm afraid we can't be friends. I will never tire of them!

We are exactly half way through the "30 Days Wild" challenge already! The past fortnight really has flown by. Today was another volunteering day with the Chi peregrines and even though it has only been five days since I was last there, the chicks have changed so much yet again. They only have small tufts of white down left now and I've been desperate to go up the turret and give them all a good brush; they just look so scruffy! 

They are five weeks old now so only have one week left before they will be fledging. One of the female chicks, number 63, has been particularly adventurous and restless today. Several times she hopped up on to one of the castellations and had a good look around. Through the scopes, I managed to see her poking her head out through the gap which was the first time I've seen her in the flesh, so to speak, rather than just on a screen. My money's on her being the first one to take the plunge!

Feeding time this evening. I think the one standing on the box is 63, judging by her head tufts.

Both adults spent a good portion of the morning perched on the cathedral but as the day brightened a bit, they took advantage of the warm air and breeze to do some flying. We didn't see them for some time apart from occasional glimpses of them very high up. I was watching them above us for a while and counted at least three falcons, possibly four in total, and there was definitely some kind of fight going on between two of these, so I took it to mean there were one or two intruding peregrines, possibly the females from a few weeks back. Unfortunately, they were far too high for me to do anything other than speculate.

The parents didn't bring any food in for a good few hours after a brief 11am feed and, after some time, the chicks were showing signs of being hungry; having been asleep for most of that period, they were suddenly wide awake and perched in row, cocking their heads up in search of their parents. Eventually, about 20 minutes before we were due to pack up for the day, the female flew in, squawking loudly and carrying a big prey item. She did several loops of the cathedral before dropping out of sight and then reappeared but flying very low. Once she had landed on her favourite prey-plucking spot, we focused the scopes on her and saw that she had brought in a very large pigeon, probably feral. She was gaping a great deal and made no attempt to start plucking the catch. Instead, she left it where she'd landed and re-positioned herself on one of the pinnacles above the nest turret, near where the tercel had landed in the meantime. Our explanation for this behaviour was that she had really struggled to bring such a large prey item in and consequently had to take some time to catch her breath before delivering the food to her chicks.

Falcon with her prey

The tercel

I was pleased to see a bit of activity from the adult birds just before leaving, since we'd gone most of the day without seeing them! They always make up for their absence in some way or another and this was a prime example of that. The Cloister's garden, where we are based, is always buzzing with wildlife as I mentioned back in May and today was no exception. I was particularly taken by a goldfinch picking at insects hidden beneath the leaves of an overhanging tree only a few feet away from me. They are one of the prettiest birds to be seen in a garden but it isn't often I get to see them at close range. I just love that yellow stripe!

 By the time I'm next on shift at the project, the chicks may well have started fledging already. I really can't wait to see them in action, learning how to be the fastest creatures on the planet!

30 Days Wild Day 10: Posing Peregrines

Once again, I was in Chichester today, volunteering for the RSPB peregrines. We are slowly approaching fledging time with only 1-2 weeks left before the chicks are ready to leave. It will most definitely be a bittersweet event. I am consoled by the fact that they won't immediately leave the site once they fly the nest; they will hang around on the cathedral for a couple of months, being fed by their parents and taught how to fly, hunt, dive etc. before making their way out into the wide world around September.

The chicks are four weeks old and have nearly lost all of their white down. They're really starting to look like adults around the face, having developed some of their cheek and moustache markings. I desperately want to give them a comb to sort out that remaining white fluff!

Both parents spent most of the morning perched in various places on the cathedral. The male has been bringing starlings in but obviously these haven't got a huge amount of meat on them and don't last very long between three hungry mouths. Interestingly, rather than plucking and tearing the prey then feeding it the chicks herself, the female has been dropping the food into the turret and supervising, allowing her young to develop their feeding skills. Female 65 (the largest of the two females) eventually figured out how to feed herself through this method this afternoon which was very exciting for us! Another milestone towards adulthood. 

I was lucky enough yet again to witness a food pass between the male and female too. I seem to always be looking up at the right time as it's normally easy to miss these occurrences and I have seen two in the past fortnight! Since the adults were on fantastic display for much of the day, I was able to snap a few photos through the scopes, after much lining up with my camera and attempts to steady my hand! These were taken with a regular handheld and cropped a tiny bit so I'm actually quite surprised by how well they have turned out.

 Female

Male

You can see from their feathers just how blustery it was today! I was complaining about the strength of the wind but they were loving it. Falcons fly really well in wind, using updrafts etc. to their advantage and both adults enjoyed some quality flying time over the course of the day. An amazing spectacle.

Peregrines Become Parents (Finally!)

It's times like these when it becomes increasingly difficult to work from home. From last Wednesday until Monday, I've had the live stream of the Chichester peregrines permanently playing on my computer while I simultaneously attempted to work on my commissions and keep an eye on those eggs for signs of hatching. I feel I've come to know these birds very well indeed with the amount of viewing time they've had from me!

My patience paid off, although there was one point when I was worried we might not be getting any hatching at all! After another shift in Chi on Thursday with still no positive signs, I woke up on both Friday and Saturday morning with the same thought running through my head: "today is the day." It turns out I was right on the latter but only just. Around about 11:30pm on Saturday night, I was just about to switch off the camera when I saw the female suddenly spring up from her seated position in the nest. She had spent that whole day fidgeting and wriggling about, clucking and peering down so I had an inkling that she knew something was happening.

She sprung up, dipped her head and one moment there were four eggs, the next there was a freshly-hatched chick! She picked it up gently and carried it over to the right of the nestbox briefly, before placing it back among the eggs and settling back down on top. I was thrilled to have caught the moment, the one I had been endlessly watching for for over four days or so. I went to sleep happy. I woke on the Sunday even happier; at 5am, a second chick had hatched!

 The female (L) and male (R) with their two chicks

The thing that has blown me away since this all happened is just how much of a part instinct plays in the cycle. These eggs were laid and the parents knew that they needed to be kept warm through incubation. Then the chicks hatched and without missing a beat, the male began to bring in small prey items which are passed to the female for plucking and feeding to the hatchlings. There was no hesitation or uncertainty. This may well only be this pair's second breeding year but they know exactly what they are doing. 

 One of the first feeds and the female mantles her prey

 It's been a treat to see the feeds taking place every couple of hours. Despite the fact that the male and female divided the incubation period more or less equally between them (the female took over for the nights), now that they have chicks, the female has gone into full "mother mode" and is incredibly reluctant to let the male brood them. The most I have seen him do is half an hour, just enough time for her to stretch her wings. I have particularly enjoyed listening to the amount of communication that goes on. The female and male call to each other loudly when they are trading food. When the female tears off small strips of meat for the chicks, she clucks as a form of encouragement so that they know food is coming. There have been a few moments when the male has flown in with the intention of taking over brooding and the female has remained sitting, but they exchange several "phrases" as if having a conversation. It's fascinating stuff.

By yesterday, the team were beginning to think that, like last year, we would only have the two chicks as the hatching bracket of 28-36 days was closing fast. For more rural peregrines, the bracket is 28-33 days but I've learnt recently that urban falcons have slightly longer, although I don't know the reason for this. This wouldn't have been unusual to only see two out of four eggs hatch out but we were hoping for more. Fortunately, our hoping wasn't for nothing and in the early hours of this morning, a third chick hatched!

 Male (L) and female (R) with chicks

 Fantastic view of the females talons!

I've been going screenshot mad over the past couple of days as it is all a new experience for me and I want to capture as much as I can. I feel so privileged to be observing this process in such a natural, unobtrusive way. To gain insight into the instinctual behaviour of this species without disturbing them is wonderful and being able to share it with the public in the way that we have been is extremely rewarding. 

There is still the matter of the fourth egg. Given that we have now passed day 36, there is very little chance that the fourth will hatch out. I'm writing this at 11pm so I could very well wake up tomorrow morning to see I've been proven wrong! Either way, the next few weeks are going to be equally as fascinating to observe. At this stage, the chicks closely resemble three balls of cotton wool more than the high-speed, streamlined falcons they will grow up to be. They are going to be eating enough food to double their weight every 7 days so that by week 6, they will be the same size as their parents and ready for fledging. Never a dull day with the peregrines; watch this space!

Male with two chicks in sight, third hidden behind.

All three chicks being fed by the female.

Three Steps Back for the Hen Harriers

Image courtesy of RSPB

A few days ago, the news came from the United Utilities Bowland Estate that three breeding male Hen Harriers had mysteriously disappeared from their nest sites. This species is in such a dire situation that an occurrence like this naturally invoked great levels of shock in everyone who heard about it, including myself. The critical status of hen harriers is widely known, so much so that it has been included in David Lindo's  Vote for Britain's National Bird campaign in an attempt to gather more support and awareness for a species that only managed four successful breeding nests in 2014.

I actually read the news about the disappearances online just before I started a shift on the Chichester Peregrine Project and I now can't help but draw comparisons between the two species. I am in the wonderful position of being able to tell members of the public about the fantastic comeback the peregrine population has made since the 60s, when it was on the brink of extinction. Just like the harriers, the peregrines suffered from horrific levels of persecution. Threats came from landowners and pigeon racers who shot the falcons to protect their own birds and coupled with the poisonous effects of agricultural pesticides at the time, the falcons' population plummeted by 80%.

Since then, steps have been taken to protect the peregrines through the introduction of legal protection and control of pesticides. There are now 1,500 breeding pairs in the UK, many of which have adapted to urban environments, much like the Chi pair, and are repeatedly nesting in cathedrals and other tall buildings. It's taken half a century and a lot of hard work from dedicated people, but the population has made a significant recovery and the species is officially  a "Green Status" bird.

It is this story that fills me with hope for the hen harriers. They were driven to extinction by 1900 but despite recovering their numbers naturally, persecution has driven to them to dangerous levels yet again. The peregrines are proof that it is possible to make a comeback but with the constant onslaught of persecution still faced by the harriers, it is sometimes hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

It is very unusual for one male hen harrier to just disappear from an active nest. So for three to vanish in less than a month is highly suspicious and although no one knows "officially" what has happened to them, everyone will have drawn their own, matching conclusions. There is a glimmer of hope edging this story. According to Martin Harper's blog, one of the nests has been saved by a juvenile male who was thankfully accepted by the female. One out of three egg clutches may still have a chance of survival now.

While I stood in the grounds of Chichester Cathedral on Monday waxing lyrical to the visitors about the peregrine renaissance, there was a bittersweet undertone. When one species is thriving, there are countless others still suffering and fighting battles that, after events such as these, already seem lost.

The important thing to remember is that they aren't lost.





Further Information: 

http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/399871-trio-of-threatened-breeding-birds-of-prey-vanish-

http://www.rspb.org.uk/henharrierlife/

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2015/05/06/bad-news-from-bowland.aspx?utm_source=awin+78888&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=affiliate&awc=6136_1431170618_e041f158b029a3d827cc1102ad20920d

Chichester Chicks and Intruders!

Today marked day 30 of incubation in the Chichester peregrine nest. I was on volunteering duty and really felt like today would be the day we would finally begin to see signs of hatching. Each time there was a glimpse of the eggs as the parents shifted around on the nest, myself and the rest of the RSPB team would be peering intently for any suggestions of pipping, which is when the chicks begin to make small holes in the shell using their "egg tooth". Even on our high-quality HD camera, we saw none. The female was incredibly fidgety at times, struggling to get comfortable on the eggs on several occasions and this is out of character for her, as she would normally be straight down on them with one little wriggle before settling in for a few hours of incubation. We were almost convinced that the fidgeting was a positive sign of imminent hatching but so far, we haven't been proved correct!

 A poor-quality snap of the male during a shift-swap with the female this morning

This didn't mean the day was a wash-out. In fact it was the opposite if we are being literal, as the sun was definitely making up for yesterday's horrifically strong winds and rain. The warm weather seemed to bring a lot of other feathered species out to play, including a lone sparrowhawk early on in the day. It didn't hang around but simply drifted across the city before heading off to the East. A flock of six or seven swifts spent the day twisting and diving through the sky just above our marquee, their scree scree calls punctuating our conversations with the visitors. One of them showed interest in an old nesting sight set inside the brickwork of the building connected to the cafe which suggests that hopefully they will choose to nest their again this year. This will be a fantastic bonus sight to see for visitors, volunteers and staff alike.

The biggest event of the day was the return of an intruding female peregrine. Over the past few weeks, there have been two different individuals identified, both female, although one is a juvenile, and both have been seen off by the parents. Today, the intruder arrived above us, followed closely by our male who had only come off the nest an hour and a half before this appearance. He was absolutely intent on getting rid of her and managed to execute several collisions with her which seemed to do the trick. It was quite a spectacle and I was pleased to have been there to see it as I've managed to miss all previous intruder occurrences this year! There was a small group of the public with us at the time who were all thrilled to see it too.

I think we were all surprised that there were not more buzzards and red kites out enjoying the thermals during the day. There were none of the latter but of the former there were only two appearances. During the first half of the day, a pair were gliding very high up showing no interest in the nest site and this resulted in only a brief spell of chatter from the female on the nest. Another one arrived in the afternoon, flying lower this time and with the male peregrine in tow. He didn't need to waste his energy on chasing the buzzard off as a rather brave herring gull had this covered. I was quite amazed at how close the gull was getting, as he swooped down on the raptor but never made contact. At the same time, I was presented with my first ever example of a peregrine falcon in a stoop. As the buzzard headed away from the site, the male peregrine remained airborne and quite suddenly he went from a glide to tucking his wings tightly in to his body and dropping into the characteristic dive. It wasn't a fully vertical one but still fairly steep and it brought him quickly and neatly on to the North side of the cathedral spire, out of our eye line.

The garden of the Cloister's Cafe, where we are set up, is a haven for various species of songbird, many of which are simply not fussed by the presence of humans. A wren, who has nested in the roots of the lilac bushes, spent much of the day to-ing and fro-ing with a full beak. Based on the frequency it was visiting, it was determined that it must be feeding chicks. We were serenaded all day by a very chatty blackbird who spent most of the time perched on the wall beside our marquee. At one point he flew across the garden so low that he almost brushed my head-not an easy task given that I'm only 5' 3"! A pair of blue tits hung from the bottom of low-hanging tree branches, picking off insects from the leaves. A dunnock jumped around the undergrowth before flying to sit on top of a low roof and released a brief but beautiful stream of song. A charm of eight or so goldfinch were also in the trees for some time, chattering and chasing each other through the air.

So although we are still waiting oh so patiently for the tiniest sign that these chicks are starting to arrive, today was certainly not uneventful. It is heartening to see such a broad range of species inhabiting a space that is only the size of an average suburban back garden.

Chichester Cathedral Peregrine Project

This week I started work in a new volunteering role for the RSPB. As you may or may not know, I have been a volunteer at the Pulborough Brooks reserve since 2013, where I work once a week in the visitor centre. It is a varied role with the focus being on retail although I also do a certain amount of meeting and greeting, and giving general advice on wildlife and nature. Despite the fact that I don't very often get the opportunity to go out on to the reserve itself, I enjoy working there and the reserve team are a friendly bunch. That said, I've been looking for other volunteer roles that would take me out into the field a bit more and give me a chance to build up some new skills, so I registered my interest in the Peregrine Falcon monitoring project that the RSPB runs annually from Chichester Cathedral.

Peregrine falcons have been nesting in Chichester Cathedral since 2001 and the RSPB has observed and recorded their progress every year since then. The birds nest in one of the turrets which contains a specially-designed nest box provided by the Sussex Ornithological Society. Traditionally, peregrines would nest on cliff edges, creating shallow scrapes in the ground using no nesting material at all. This leaves them open to the high risk of their eggs rolling off the cliffs and so they have come to realise that cathedrals across the country provide much safer, lower-risk nest sites.

The peregrines are nesting in the turret on the right.

The live webcam has been streaming for several weeks now and the peregrines have laid four eggs. This number of eggs was no surprise as the female laid the same last year and she will always lay the same amount; the number of eggs laid in the first year of breeding determines how many she will lay for the rest of her life. This doesn't necessarily mean that all four will hatch out into nestlings. 2014 saw two of the four eggs hatch but this was likely down to the erratic laying pattern of the female. Normally laying would be completed within a week, with 24-48 hours between each egg, but it took a fortnight for all eggs to finally be laid. This year, however, the laying pattern was much more as it should have been, so for that reason, the hopes are that at least three if not all of the eggs will hatch. 

My first day as a Public Events Assistant on the project was unseasonably warm and I was quite thankful to be on webcam duty and spending the day in the cool shade of the marquee. I felt a certain amount of pressure as I know the majority of volunteers involved this year are returning participants and so have plenty of knowledge to share from past breeding seasons, in comparison to my limited knowledge-base and experience. Once I got talking to the public, I felt much more at ease and thoroughly enjoyed sharing the few facts I had with interested parties. I know I'll pick up plenty more as I go along, particularly from listening to other staff and volunteers. I certainly got a thrill out of seeing the expressions of wonder and excitement on the visitors' faces. 

Until the eggs actually hatch, there is actually a limit to what we are able to show visitors. The female does the majority of incubation and the male is supposed to bring her food and take over about 15% of the work. This particular pair, however, have been behaving in slight contradiction to this. They have been taking shifts of around four or five hours each on the nest and going off to find their own food. On Wednesday, when I was working there, a wake of buzzards circled high up above the cathedral, riding thermals and showing no interest in the nest site. They were seen off by the female with a few vertical attacks, before she took over brooding at around 11am and spent the next few hours exposed to the direct sunlight and heat of the day. As birds don't have sweat glands and so cannot cool down by releasing moisture as we would, they have to "pant" in order to expel the heat from their bodies and regulate their temperature. The female was panting heavily for the entirety of her shift and I did feel for her, having the task of keeping her eggs warm and herself cool simultaneously! No easy task. When the male eventually returned around 3pm, the sun had moved round and shade had crossed most of the nest box, so he was much more comfortable than his partner and only demonstrated panting for a short time. 

  

The fourth egg was laid on 7th of April so, based on the 28-33 day incubation period, we are estimating hatching will begin around the 5th of May. It's at that point that having a 24-hour live stream of the nest could prove very distracting, particularly when there is work waiting to be done! Here's hoping that all four eggs hatch out.