Salisbury Cathedral Peregrine chicks successfully ringed

We can now help name the four little birds

Author: Aaron HarperPublished 22nd May 2024

We now know what genders this years batch of Peregrine chicks are - and we have a chance to name them.

Experts from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) weighed and ringed the four chicks and found three boys and one girl.

The hatchlings are now about three weeks old and have been fitted with a small metal ring for tracking and record-keeping as well as a larger, orange Darvic ring made of plastic which bears a unique ID for each bird.

That was done by Nigel Jones from the BTO, assisted by Tommy Saunders.

The rings will allow us to follow their secret lives, telling us where they go and what they do.

The chicks weighed in at 570g, 610g, 650g and 830g respectively, with the female being the heaviest, as they grow to be larger than males.

We can now get involved in naming the chicks - although we'll only be name two of the boys.

That's because one of the males and the female are to be named after current members of the Cathedral’s Works Yard team, to mark the recent completion of the major repair programme, which saw the exterior of the Cathedral free from scaffolding after 38 years of restoration.

The remaining pair of males will be named from our suggestions, via the Cathedral's social pages - with Clerk of Works Gary Price drawing the two names.

The chicks will stay on the south side of the Cathedral tower for a few more weeks as they prepare for fledging during the summer.

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