A couple of days later than in recent years, the first egg was observed by Nick Dixon to be laid at 7.07am on the morning of Maundy Thursday, 24th March. The birds occasionally sit on their first egg, but incubation proper does not start until their third egg has been laid.

The laying of the second egg on Holy Saturday, 26th March, was some time between 2.30pm and 5pm, about 58 hours after the first, but if you can help us fix the time more exactly, please let us know by email contact or twitter reply.

We would hope that a third egg will be laid in the wee small hours of Tuesday 29th March.

Update 1. Thanks to Nick Dixon for seeing the 3rd egg laid this morning at 7.27am (BST), 63 hours or so after the 2nd egg. Incubation proper should now be starting, ‘shared’ by both adults. Based on previous years for our Peregrine pair, we would hope for chicks to be hatching after about 32-34 days, so 29th April – 1st May as a best guess.

Will they lay a 4th egg this year, on Thursday afternoon? And if so when will we spot it under the sitting adult?

Update 2. Yes, pretty sure I’ve just glimpsed a 4th egg, which must have been laid between 6.45pm and 7.30pm BST Thursday 31st March. Incubating adults now hunker down over their eggs like a slate-blue Thunderbird 2. Female does most of the sitting, but calls loudly to the male when needing a comfort/food break.
Yes, definitely 4 eggs.

This is the 20th consecutive season of egg-laying at St Michael’s Mount Dinham; the first 11 using an external E-facing shelf, the last 9 in the nest box mounted inside the SW-facing trefoil opening high in the Spire some 20-odd years ago.
Probably the “third generation” of breeding adults, with present male since 2005 and present female since 2009.
There are pros & cons to Peregrines using such an enclosed nest site – are there any similar ones elsewhere? Adults, eggs and chicks all have more protection from spring gales and summer storms during the breeding season, and from predators. There are risks from accumulation of debris (we have virtually no chance to clean it) – only 2 out of 4 eggs hatched last year and one of the chicks in 2015 was weak on fledging. But overall their record is good.

Update 3. Tue 12 April and both adults are attentive to the task of incubating their 4 eggs; just over a third of the way through. A screenshot from a couple of nights ago showing both in the nest box.

Unusual to see both adults sleeping in the nest box at night during incubation.

Update 4. May 4th Wednesday and we have 2 little peregrine chicks and 2 eggs still being incubated. For those who’ve not been following events on our @StMikes_Exeter twitter feed, the first hatching seems to have occurred around 4.50am on Mon 2nd May, 34 days after 3rd egg was laid; thanks to Wendy Bartter for notification and a
After quite a long wait a second chick hatched around midnight into Wed 4th May, notified by Ingrid Bwouwer, and today both adults were actively bringing prey into the nest box to feed these two, while still sitting the 2 remaining eggs and keeping the young eyases warm.

Update 5. May 12th Thursday. Unfortunately the other 2 eggs will definitely not hatch now, and the adults are gradually losing interest in incubating them as they concentrate on feeding the 2 young chicks. Indeed, the eyases are growing and developing apace, sitting up against each other, feeding well and really starting to flex their little wings, with the first hints of independent movement too. Here’s a screenshot from the evening of the 6th with both adults and the small chicks. Note the vertical markings of the juvenile in the pinnacle photo compared to the horizontal markings you will see on the adults.

Update 6. Sun 29th May. Hopefully you’ve seen from Twitter or Facebook that Nick & Jason were able to measure and ring the 2 chicks last Monday, 23rd. Growth and development seems fine and it appears we have 2 male chicks this year. The unhatched eggs were removed under licence for analysis. Since then the chicks have started to look more advanced, with feathers coming to replace their down, starting to part feed themselves, bouncing around the nestbox (sometimes out of view of the camera) and noticing the world outside. Best guess for fledging is around 12th June, Music Sunday at St Mike’s and the weekend of official celebrations for the Queen’s 90th birthday.

Screen image from day after ringing, Tue 24 May, chicks 3 weeks old.

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Mar30 update – Nick Dixon is pretty sure he saw a 4th egg at about 1pm on Monday 30th March. If the female was keeping to a 64 hour interval, it would have been expected around 7am Monday morning, but the adults have been sitting tight since incubation proper started with their 3rd egg, so it’s only possible to check when the female goes off for a break and the male takes over. We would be pleased to hear if anyone can confirm and give a more precise time for the 4th egg.

Mar27 update – a 3rd egg has been laid, at 15.05 on the afternoon of Fri 27th March, again some 64 hours after the previous one. As high-status falconry birds in the Middle Ages, it is perhaps appropriate that our Peregrines have laid 3 eggs in this Richard III week.

We now wait to see if that is all; last year our pair laid a 4th egg, which seemed to be unusual for them, although only 3 hatched. Meanwhile, the Peregrines on the Catholic church near Bath railway station have laid their 2nd egg today (Friday) and those on Norwich Cathedral now have 4. The pair at Nottingham Trent Uni are busy incubating their clutch, but Derby Cathedral are still awaiting their 1st egg.

Mar25 update – a 2nd egg was laid sometime between 22.15 and 23.08 on the evening of Tue 24th March, some 64 hours after the 1st egg, longer than the typical 48-57 hour gap expected. If anyone can tell us the exact time, we would be pleased to hear. The female is now sitting the eggs more regularly, but still not all the time.

It seems there were more than one intruder bird last week; the juvenile offspring was observed soaring with the adults, but other(s) were seen aggressively expelled from the territory.

In other news, congratulation to St Michael’s choir member Graham Keitch whose anthem “In Memoriam Ricardus Rex” was sung during the Requiem Mass for King Richard III at the Catholic Holy Cross Priory Church in Leicester on Monday. It has been good to see most religious commentators emphasizing the many strands of continuity with the medieval English church, as we also try to in our website’s History Timeline.

Mar22 – Spring is in the air and egg-laying has commenced in the Peregrines’ nest box inside the south face of St Michael’s spire. This will be an updating Blog, hopefully documenting the laying of more eggs during this week.

I’m pleased to say that both Nick Dixon, our local Peregrine expert, and Jason Fathers, who has installed the camera and hosts the live streaming, were online at 6.30am on Sunday 22nd March to witness the laying of the first egg of the 2015 season at 06:36. This is just a day or two later than the first eggs seen on camera the previous 2 years. Thanks to Jason for this picture…

Typically our Peregrine female lays her eggs at 2 day intervals, and will start serious incubation of the eggs only when 2 or possibly 3 have been laid. So it’s alright that the first egg is being left mainly unattended at present. Also really good to see the egg laid in a scrape well visible in the camera field of view.

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However, tonight (Thu 19 Mar) the female is standing over the “scrape” rather than settling down to sleep, so maybe an egg is immanent.

By day the resident pair of adults have been trying to see off the intruder, but without too much aggression, so Nick Dixon suspects that the third bird may be last year’s surviving female juvenile. If she has failed to find her own territory and mate, this returning behaviour is not uncommon; the resident birds will recognise their offspring and not attack, but the female may see her as competition, hence the lack of welcome.

So an interesting development just as we are expecting the first egg around the time of the equinox and eclipse. It would be great to get sight of a leg ring to back up our suspicions, but asking a lot of any observer or photographer. We think the resident female is in her seventh breeding season here, so probably not ready to be displaced.

After a couple of different technical issues from last year, the live streaming of the nest box camera to the church website peregrine page, http://www.stmichaelsmountdinham.org.uk/peregrine-falcons/
was brought back online on Tuesday 17th March. It has needed a couple of early morning restarts but is otherwise functioning well. (Live streaming costs us about £5 per day, totalling some £600 over the breeding season, so any donations via the MyDonate facility on the website, or otherwise, would be most appreciated.)

Last year’s Peregrine diary can be found in the website blogs for March to June 2014, or with http://www.stmichaelsmountdinham.org.uk/tag/peregrine-falcons/

Meanwhile at St Michael’s we are also getting ready for the solemn and joyful activities with which we Christians recount the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. Information on Services from Passion Sunday through to Easter (5th April) and beyond is also on the website.

RB

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