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2023 – The Story
Background
During 2022, we lost our original male at an age of almost 14 years due to injuries caused in a dogfight, whilst the female incubated four eggs. One of the two juveniles that fledged seemed to leave the territory very early in its development. The female and the other juvenile were lost to Avian Influenza (AI). In addition, an unknown female was found dead at Leicester University with the same disease.
The new resident male paired up with another female at the end of August and their bond grew strong quickly, the female scraping the stones and the pair fending off intruders. However, by late October it was apparent that the male looked moribund and on the 21st he fell from the platform; another victim of AI from the postmortem results.
During the final two months of 2022, the female visited the box most days for short periods. Her demeanour suggested that there were other birds in the area, and she was defending the nest site, but she ended the year without a known partner.
The 2023 Season
During January, the lone female visited the box most days and from the middle of the month spent some evenings on the platform. She brought in food and occasionally stashed prey and was seen scraping in the stones towards the end of the month. When not in the box, she was frequently seen on the Cathedral spire. From the 28th, there appeared to be a change in her behaviour and there was a lot of ‘toing and froing’ activity. The following day she made 17 sorties to the platform, each time calling loudly on landing, a clear indication of the presence of another bird.
Things settled down in the early part of February and she visited the box frequently during the day, often with a meal, and spent some of her time overnight on the ledge. On the 7th, whilst in the Cathedral grounds, one of our observers noticed the female with a male, calling to each other as they landed on spire crosses. They departed at least twice but quickly returned. Late the following afternoon, the male was seen in the box for the first time and fed on a stashed pigeon – the female had finally found a new mate. The pair were seen in the box together for the first time on the 9th and the male was seen to ‘tidy’ the scrape area. Both birds visited the box frequently and their bond grew strong as suggested by his confidence when he tried to steal a meal from her. Feeding and bonding continued through February with frequent visits to the box and tidying of the scrape and on the 12th, the male started a separate, new scrape in the opposite corner in the box. Their bonding intensified on the 23rd with the pair touching beaks, which showed the strength of their relationship. There were occasions when their actions suggested intruder activity and on the 25th, one observer noted an altercation between two males and a female; the resident pair forced the intruding male out of their territory.
During the early part of March, the pair spent more time in the box bonding and the male brought in food for the female to get her into breeding condition. There were indications of intruders throughout the month with the pair making defensive flights from the platform. On the 8th, the female returned with ruffled feathers, most probably due to interaction with an intruder. Later that day, the snow fell and by midnight the platform was covered with a thick layer. In the afternoon of the 10th, the female made scrapes in four different places on the platform, possibly unsure as to the optimum location as this would be her first time breeding on this site. During the ‘Watch Day’ in St. Martins Square on the 23rd, we confirmed that there was an intruding female in the area. The pair were also noted mating on at least three occasions. On the 28th, the female remained on the ledge from the previous evening and at 2:35 her posture changed, and she laid her first egg of the season. The male arrived at 6:35 to see it for the first time and incubated it at 11:30. The second egg was laid on the 30th at 11:50, with the third on April 1st at 21:15 and the fourth on the 4th at 16:45. On the evening of the 8th, an intruding female was seen on the platform. It had a BTO ring and an illegible colour-ring. This confirmed out suspicions of continued intruder activity in the territory. Thankfully it retreated without incident. The pair shared incubation duties throughout with the female taking the majority of the night sessions. The male was reluctant to give up incubation at times, and on one occasion he had a stretch of 5 hours and 35 minutes and even did a night stint on the evening of the 11th.
During the 30 days of April, the pair achieved a remarkable 99% total of incubation. Of that total, the female incubated 64.4% and the male 35.6%, an incredible result by a very committed pair, all this despite occasional intruder activity.
The percentage of time spent on the eggs by the pair and the total percentage for the day.
The first chick to hatch was on May 5th at 6:50, the male incubated the chick at 9:40 for the first time. The second chick hatched later the same day at 17:35, and the final hatching of the clutch was the following day at 4:20; less than 24 hours between the three. As is usual, the female did most of the feeding of the chicks, but the male did his utmost to participate. Additionally, he continued to help with the incubation of the chicks. The chicks were well fed and grew rapidly. On May 26th, the three chicks were ringed under license from the BTO (Orange: TCC, TDC and PBF). All three chicks looked healthy and DNA testing subsequently revealed that TCC and PBF were female and TDC was male. Over the next few days, they started to get more mobile and were wing flapping and exercising, their pin feathers showed, and their distinctive facemasks became more evident. By the 30th, they tried to feed themselves and PBF even snatched food from the female, which showed growing confidence. As they now had ample feathers, the adults spent less time incubating. From the 31st, they wandered further from the scrape and exercising became more vigorous.
During the first two weeks in June, the three juveniles continued their exploration of the box and exercising and were well fed by both adults. The first youngster to fledge was TDC at 6:30 on the 16th. Unfortunately, it was not the best of take offs and he was ‘grounded’ and had to be rescued from Cheapside in the city centre. Grounding of juveniles, unable to attain enough lift to fly, is not uncommon in Peregrines and a second chance is normally successful so we returned him to the box. Unfortunately, two days later at 4:00, he was accidentally forced from the ledge by one of his sibling’s wing flapping. At 8:10 on the 19th PBF fledged naturally and was later located on the roof of a nearby property. At 18:00, she was located on top of an air conditioning unit close by. The following morning, she was seen sitting on a bin outside the Cathedral and then on a bench in the rain in Jubilee Square, outside BBC Radio Leicester. She was obviously having difficulty getting any uplift in her flight and the decision was taken to return her to the platform. TCC was still on the platform but had been doing extensive wing flaps for the previous two day and was eager to leave. She fledged successfully and was located on the ledge of a building in Gallowtree Gate. Meanwhile PBF was fed by the adults in the afternoon. She took to the air again, at 11:45 on the 21st, much stronger than previous. From the 24th, TCC and PBF were seen on the platform being fed by the adults.
Whilst I was birdwatching around Cropston Reservoir on the 25th, I noticed a juvenile Peregrine ‘cooling off’ in the shallows. I could clearly see a colour-ring and it was our male TDC – an amazing co-incidence! He was chased off by a couple of Crows and flew over my head. This is approximately five miles from the Cathedral. With the other two juveniles frequently being seen, this confirmed that all three had eventually fledged successfully.
The juvenile TCC was noted being fed on the platform through the first week of July, but PBF was not seen again until the 8th. One or both juveniles were then seen most days up until the 22nd when TCC was last seen and the final sighting of PBF was on the 26th, but both adults were on the platform daily. Unfortunately, in the early hours of the morning of the 29th, juvenile PBF was found dead below the glass bridge of the Highcross Centre. It seems that she flew into one of the large glass windows – a fate that is all too common in birds and shows the fragility in the life of fledging Peregrines.
The adults visited the box most days and during August and there was the occasional scraping of stones and bonding session, plus feeding and stashing of prey. When they were not on the platform, where they often spent the evening, they could be seen sitting on the spire crosses. September was generally insignificant with more bonding and feeding in the box. It was pattern repeat for October, November and December. There was evidence of intruder activity in each month, but largely an uneventful end to the year.
Summary
Thankfully, the traumas that generally surround breeding at Leicester Cathedral were not as significant as in 2022 when birds were lost to injury and Avian Influenza. All three juveniles safely fledged and were seen flying freely. Unfortunately, PBF succumbed in a collision with a large glass window.
The activities captured on camera really do give us an amazing insight into the lives of these special birds and an understanding of the difficulties and challenges that they endure that is normally out of view. It is only through the monitoring of sites like ours that show how precarious the life of a Peregrine is.
The identification of individuals through colour ringing and the data collected help us to improve our knowledge and conservation of this enigmatic species. As an educational tool, projects like this are easily accessible and bring wildlife and nature closer to the wider public, which hopefully encourages further engagement with the natural environment.
Prey Details
There were fewer prey species identified this year, mainly due to the extent of time that the cameras were down.
Of the 159 items of prey brought into the box, we were able to identify 144 of 14 species, less than half the number of species in 2022. Of these, there were 104 Feral Pigeon which accounted for over 72% of all identified prey.
Other species identified: Blackbird (5), Black-headed Gull (2), Blackcap (1), Collared Dove (1), Golden Plover (1), Great Tit (4), Greenfinch (1), Red-legged Partridge (1), Redwing (3), Snipe (2), Starling (6), Teal (9) and Woodcock (4).
Jim Graham
Acknowledgements
My thanks go to everyone at Leicester Cathedral, King Richard III Visitor Centre and Leicester City Council. Special thanks to Ed Drewitt for his expertise in helping to identify some of the more problematic prey species.
To see previous year’s story, click on the link below.