4th March: A new season
Another breeding season is just about upon us and our nest box camera is up and running, if the birds are on a similar timescale to previous years we should see eggs start to appear around the middle of this month.
We don't leave the camera on after the chicks leave the nest but it is good to be able to look up to the roof and see the two adults up there through the winter months. Quite often we can see one or both of them sitting on a railing by the box surveying their territory or flying around the area. Sometimes it is possible to spot them carrying their prey back to the roof although sometimes this seems to be quite a precarious job as they frequently fly in well below roof level and have to make last second adjustments!!
When the chicks leave the building we always hope that they are going to do well but to date we have had no confirmed sightings of chicks that have come from this nest box, although it is thought one of an earlier year's chicks has taken up residence at Beachy Head.
After our coverage finished last year we did get some news which is probably not too good about one of the 2006 chicks. The smallest male chick had been given ring number 13 and this ring was found last October caught up in some anti-pigeon wire on the roof of a building in Sutton, Surrey. There was no sign of the bird, so we really don't know how or what had happened, although earlier in the day a peregrine had been spotted on the roof tucking into a pigeon.
7th March: Scraping out a nest
Although the first egg isn't expected for another 1 - 2 weeks you can already see the nest preparations taking place. If you've taken a look through our information page you may have read that the female lays her eggs in a "scrape". This scrape is essentially a hole in the gravel that has been scraped out by the adults.
You can see the scrape towards the end closest to the camera on the webcam pictures. If you're lucky, you may also see one of the adults lie down in this spot and kick the gravel out using their feet from time to time as the picture below shows...
