Aylesbury Peregrines
You are looking at the nest site of a pair of Peregrine Falcons, situated on the 12th floor of the Buckinghamshire Council building in Aylesbury town centre.
Peregrines are the fastest animal on the planet and can reach speeds in excess of 200mph.
They are an apex predator who catch and kill live birds on the wing - as such the footage here may contain gory images.
Peregrines first appeared on County Hall in 2007 and the nest platform was erected in 2010. They first attempted to breed in 2011 and birds have been present ever since.
The female is larger and greyer than the male. Our current male has a metal ring on his leg but we don't know where he is from.
Peregrines are awesome and exhilarating birds! We are very lucky to be able to watch these wonderful birds up close and personal.
Our chick successfully fledged (took it's first flight) on Monday morning, and managed a strong enough flight to land back on the building. He then interrupted meetings as he sat outside a meeting room on the 6th floor for much of the day.
There was then some concern that he'd gone missing, but he hasn't :)
Early yesterday morning I paid a visit to County Hall to see if I could locate him, initially it wasn't looking good when I could see both adults but no chick. But then I heard and saw the chick fly in and land on the very top of the building on the East side on the lift tower at the north end where he stayed. He was calling to the proud parents who were both on the nest platform.
So whilst it's still a dangerous time for our chick, he has completed his first few flights and with each flight he'll get stronger and stronger and more agile.
It's a spectacular time to watch these birds live, in the field, as the chick interacts with his parents, so try and get to the town and enjoy.
Mike :)
Apologies for the lack of updates.
Unfortunately three eggs were infertile, but infertile eggs are quite common in young pairs which our birds are. Hopefully a greater success next year.
The positive is that we have our amazing bundle of fluff who is growing at an alarming rate :)
There is a plan in place to ring the chick this evening, so please don't worry if you catch a human on the camera, or that the chick is missing for a few minutes. This involves attaching a plastic colour ring to the chicks leg which will have a unique colour and code on it. This allows the chick to be identified at a reasonable distance throughout it's life time.
We have ringed the chicks here for over a decade, it is very safe to do it and we've never encountered a problem. Yes, Mum might voice here dis-pleasure, but it'll all rapidly return to normal.
Enjoy the spectacle as our chick grows towards fledging, the worlds number one bird :)
We successfully ringed our chick this evening.
From its weight and it's measurements we are as sure as we can be that it is a male.
The 3 eggs have been removed under licence and will be housed in due course at a local museum. These were shown to be infertile.
Enjoy the events over the weekend :)
We still have only one egg hatched although I'm still hopeful for the others as they did appear later than the first egg. Cross fingers. There was a wonderful opportunity to see the white ball of fluff as my colleagues are calling our chick at around 1020 when there was a feed.
I managed to grab a screen shot yesterday which you can see below, for those that haven't been lucky enough to catch at sighting.
