Salisbury Cathedral peregrines lay two eggs
The annual watch on the spire nesting box begins!
Two eggs have been laid by the peregrine falcons at Salisbury Cathedral - as the nesting season starts at the base of the spire.
The first arrived on Friday evening (17th March), with a second following early yesterday morning (20th March).
Salisbury Cathedral has put their annual nest-cam livestream online |newtab) for us to watch the action from now on.
There's three camera views for us to see - two focussed on the nesting box itself and another at the end of the balcony, where the adult peregrines often store food.
Granville Pictor from the Wiltshire Ornithological Society and the Cathedral’s peregrine expert said:
“The Cathedral’s cameras offer us a fascinating insight into the lives of these amazing raptors, and a chance to study their behaviour. For example, this female probably won’t start incubating until she lays her next-to-last egg – they generally lay between three and four – so we’ll see the eggs left uncovered for longish periods. She’ll know instinctively when to settle down and then we’ll get to see everything unfold.”
As well as the nest-cams being seen online, they'll also be available to see on a screen in the Cathedral's Cloisters.
Phil Sheldrake, Senior Advisor at Natural England and Nature Advisor to the Cathedral, who instigated the peregrine project when he was working as a conservation officer at the RSPB, said:
“It is good to see the peregrines back and laying. Being able to watch the breeding process like this is a great way of involving people in wildlife conservation and the natural world – and it’s great to see that the Cathedral is extending its environmental programme to include wildflower planting, a giant bug Cathedral, bat and bird boxes and the Queens Green Canopy trees planted on Marsh Close. Every little bit helps and encourages others to do the same.”
27 peregrine chicks have fledged from the Tower since 2014.
Last year, the nesting pair laid four eggs, which hatched at the end of April 2022.
The chicks were named in honour of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, after some of Her late Majesty's pets - with Monty, Willow, Holly, and Noble chosen in a public vote.
The adult peregrines currently nesting on the South Tower balcony have been visiting the site regularly over the winter.
Now that eggs have been laid, we might still see both peregrines out and about for a while, but once the female starts to incubate the eggs, the adults will take it in turns to sit on them, so we'll only ever see one at a time.