What will the season bring?

Starting the incubation period

What will this season bring for our peregrine family and those of us who choose to watch?

Over the past few years, those of us involved with the Falconcam project here in Nottingham have come to expect one thing – the unexpected.

Whilst the nest site atop the Newton Building in the centre of our fair city has been very successful in terms of the number of chicks reared in recent years, the impact of the weather in the 2012, when we lost three out of four chicks, proves that even an experienced pair, on a generally sheltered nest site can still be at the mercy of Mother Nature. The late snow fall this time last year also gave us viewers a bit of a fright, but once again our peregrine pair came through – successfully rearing another brood.

We’ve had other surprises over the years too, such as visits from fully grown chicks from previous years, a precocious pigeon getting very close to the nest and one of the adult birds seemingly interacting with its refection in the window behind the ledge. For most of us these were behaviours never before seen, and for me, this opportunity to observe things we have never seen before, either as individuals or collectively, is the real benefit of the project.

Whilst the cameras were originally installed to help us protect the nest, the quality of the camera set up now gives thousands of us the opportunity to keep a watchful eye on what must be the nation’s most watched peregrine family.

Who knows what the months ahead will bring, but one thing is for sure, there will be plenty of people hooked by the goings on high on a ledge over Nottingham.

Erin McDaid
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust