2021
Exciting news! The Lincolnshire Bird Club have kindly agreed to sponsor a webcam to monitor the nest tray in 2021. The infra-red camera will be running for the 3 months of the breeding season and should capture all the nest acivity day and night.
17 January 2021
Our peregrines were seen flying together, calling to each other and performing tumbling displays, all part of pair-bonding and courtship.
21 January
A busy (and breezy) morning on the church tower walkway. Chris Marshall and I installed the nest tray and camera for the TV screen in t
h30 January
A long 10-hour slog by the Wildlife Windows lads has given us our first webcam! This will supplement the video to the TV in the coffee shop. We have two cameras, a fixed focus one pointing along the east walkway (useful when the juveniles leave the nest) and a zoom camera aimed at the nest tray. There is also the ability to have a split screen, where both cameras are viewable.
We are still waiting to get the streaming up and running – there is a cost involved, but there is plenty of time, the birds didn't visit the nest tray until March last year.
Images below are photos of the two cameras, plus the split screen – all infra-red night views.
11 February
First visit to the nest by our birds. They spent 13 minutes there, creating a depression in the gravel. Watch the full video HERE
21 February
Another visit at 08.00 by the female, following visits on the 17th & 20th. Each time, the female enlarges the scrape.
22 February
Courtship – one of several visits from 06.35.
28 February
A visiting peregrine that landed on the spire this afternoon was chased off by our residents.
4 March
After a couple of quiet days, the pair were back on the nest tray this afternoon
7 March
Another (or perhaps the same) visiting peregrine was chased away from the spire by the female this morning.
8 March
Female visited the nest tray mid-morning, then the pair copulated on the spire crockets. Further brief visits this afternoon.
9 March
Four visit by the female today – one with the male.
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14 March
Another visit. There are now 3-4 visits each day, starting before dawn.
17 March
Another visit by the pair mid-afternoon. After the female departed, the male sat on the same spot for almost 2 hours.
20 March
More courtship display. See the 8-minute video on YouTube HERE. The vagrant peregrine was around the church mid-afternoon, seen off by the residents
24 March
The female slept for a couple of hours on the nest last night, and this morning the pair went through an extended courtship sequence, with over an hour on the nest from around 07.40. She then returned and spent 1 hour 20 mins on the nest from midday.
26 March
The female spent much of the time on the nest. The pair mated on the gargoyle in the afternoon and the male brought prey for the female.
27 March
First egg this afternoon at 16.15. She incubated until 19.03, then left. Expect the second in a couple of days. Keep watching and buy our book, or donate to the Lincs Bird Club who paid for the views you are now seeing!
28 March
The egg was left unattended for 4 hours this afternoon, with both birds returning at 18.40. I'm told this is normal behaviour. An egg remains viable for days provided it doesn't get warm from incubation, as it hasn't started to form. The female won't usually incubate until the penultimate egg has appeared, ensuring the eggs hatch within a day or two of each other. Until then, when she's on the nest, she isn't incubating as her 'brood patch' isn't in contact with the egg. She's just sitting over it for protection.
30 March
Second egg at 01.22
1 April
3rd egg arrived at 10.49
2 April
The male brings in prey
3 April
4th egg at 23.25
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