New Cathedral nest box well overdue after 'rotten' old one fell apart
Two Peregrine Falcons have seen courting at the new box in recent days
Salisbury Cathedral's Clerk of Works says he's excited to see the Peregrine Falcons back at the nest box on the Spire Tower.
The pair have been seen courting on the live feed - on a brand new box for laying their eggs.
The new box features ramps for chicks to get back into the nest should they fall out.
Gary Price told Greatest Hits Radio a new box was well overdue.
"Originally we were just going to install two ramps, one either side in case the chicks fell out. I took all the gravel out just before Christmas, removed the nest box and unfortunately it fell apart because it had been up there five or six years and it gone a bit rotten, so we decided to make a new nest box," Gary said.
He said that it actually made life easier because attaching ramps to the old box was likely to be tricky thanks to the sloped sides of the box.
The new box also features thicker timber and stronger sealing, in the hope that it will last another five to six years.
However, Gary said time was against him to get the new box prepared.
"A nest box wasn't there for several weeks," he said, adding that he'd seen the Peregrine's flying around.
"I bet they were thinking 'where's our nest box gone?'" he told us, "I thought they might fly off and nest somewhere else."
The new box was installed at the beginning of January and the first signs of Peregrine activity at the box spotted a couple of weeks later.
The ramps, which were installed on the recommendation of the local RSPB group follows the trend of other Cathedral's with nest boxes.
"They have found that it has been beneficial because occasionally a chick does fall out," Gary explained.
He told us that the chicks are 'clumsy' when they're young because their feet are so large.
In order to help them should they need to return to the nest box, the ramps have grooves cut into them so the chicks are able to grip their claws on it to help them on their way.
It's hoped eggs will be laid in the next few weeks, with hatching expected around Easter time, before the chicks fledge the nest.
Before they do fledge, the local RSPB team will visit the chicks to ring them with identification tags so we can find out what they get up to later in life.