Cambridge Peregrines

Female Peregrine sitting in front of an Art Deco window with metal zigzags in a brick building, seen through blurred green leaves.

Peregrine on the Tower this afternoon @theul.bsky.social. @camperegrines.bsky.social

A walk on the wild side with Cambridge’s hidden nature From peregrine falcons to otters, Jonathan Liu reveals some of Cambridge's weird and wonderful wildlife hiding in plain sight

The city centre peregrines and some of the people who help monitor and take excellent photographs of them feature in this piece from Varsity. "A walk on the wild side with Cambridge’s hidden nature": www.varsity.co.uk/features/29703

Finishing the week with glorious sunshine, two @camperegrines.bsky.social on the tower @theul.bsky.social
Geese, gosling and a heron on the Cam.

It's very unlikely a peregrine would take a duckling from the ground so they are relatively safe from them. Unfortunately, they are more likely to be taken by other birds such as heron, seagull, magpie or mammals like otter and fox or fish like pike.

Members of the Cambridge Peregrine Group will be at this year's 106th Conversazione and Nat Hist Fest. We look forward to seeing you there. @cnhs1857.bsky.social

How nice, in the middle of Cambridge, to see a red kite drifting over Parker’s Piece, minding its own business. It was mobbed by a carrion crow and then a peregrine @camperegrines.bsky.social 🪶 came over to ensure the kite left its airspace!

In the last three weeks the same male has stayed in the area and spent a lot of time with the resident female on the UL. They both like perching on top of the statues ( known as the winds) on each corner of the tower. The male likes eating leftovers that the female stashes there. @theul.bsky.social

The week after the resident male disappeared was very unsettled with up to 4 peregrines seen around the UL and various sightings of birds in the area. Thankfully in the last 5 days one male has been seen regularly on King's & the UL although no mating behaviour has been seen.

The resident female and a male were seen on the UL this morning and on King's at 13:30. This male has also been seen near the nest site while the female was present in the nest. This is promising news after at least 3 or 4 birds have been seen in the area in the last few days.

I think that was a pigeon leg with a ring on it.

Thanks Matthew. We may have had 4 birds in the areas yesterday so you may have seen two females around the nest site area. A lot has been going on since the resident male went missing so its hard to keep track of what's going on but any reports of sightings very welcome.

But at the moment it’s not going to plan…

The resident male still hasn't been seen so something has probably happened to him. However, a different male is still around and was spotted on St John's college chapel earlier. The female has been spending quite a lot of time on the old URC, eating prey there yesterday morning.

The intruding male doesn’t have any rings on its legs unlike the resident male (metal ring on left leg) and female (metal ring on right and red plastic on left). Reports of sightings of any peregrines in the area would be appreciated.

An intruding male was seen on King’s this morning (pictured) and unfortunately the resident male hasn’t been seen Friday. This combination of events may mean the resident male has been pushed out of the territory or potentially injured or killed.

Male visiting the nest site in the last week.

With only a few weeks to go until potential egg laying the birds have increased their bonding and mating with regular visits to the nest site. They have also been feeding on Teal, Fieldfare, (pictured) and Goldfinch in recent months with respective feathers found below King's.

Peregrine falcon on the University Library tower next to the statue of the South Wind.

Peregrine keeping the statue of the South Wind company at @theul.bsky.social this afternoon.

Two peregrines @theul.bsky.social this morning.

They took it in turns to circle the tower before alighting, all the while calling gently (for a peregrine) to one another.

#CambridgeUniversityLibraries #WinterWatch #ULBiodiversity #ULbirdwatching @camperegrines.bsky.social

One last view of a breakfasting peregrine @theul.bsky.social in 2024.

@camperegrines.bsky.social

On this day last year the now resident female arrived in Cambridge. After reading the red colour ring on her left leg which has the letters TVH on it we knew where she’d come from. Here's a summary of what we know of her life so far
threadreaderapp.com/thread/18649...

The male is more compact and is "cleaner" looking, despite the blood on his chin in the photo. He has very subtle flecked markings in the centre of his chest. He has a metal ring on his left leg from when he was rescued in 2019. He is probably at least 11 years old.

This morning the nest was cleared out. Dirty gravel, feathers, vegetation, prey remains and pellets were removed and the nest was topped up with fresh gravel in anticipation of next year's breeding season. Thanks to all involved!

The pair have been spending quite a lot of time recently on King's college chapel, sometimes close together on the same spire. The female has also been seen roosting on the south side of the chapel. They have also been seen hunting together which hasn't been witnessed before.

The male has been seen in various locations in the city centre recently - the nest site ledge, on King's, the new museum site, he also visited the nest site plinth to react to an intruder. It looks like he also went looking to have a bath in a gutter, unfortunately it was empty.

Yesterday evening I spotted the male perched on Holy Trinity church in central Cambridge, a location where I've not seen adult peregrines perching before. He flew from there to King's where the female, who was already there, vocalised at him.

The juveniles haven't been seen since the end of July as they seem to have dispersed further afield and not returned since then. The adults have been on the UL, nest site building, King's and the new museum site chimney. They perch in the shade to escape the recent hot weather.

Some of the Cambridge peregrine group attended a meeting in Stamford yesterday to listen to talks from other areas of the UK and experts in the field. Thanks to @SaintsPeregrine for hosting it and to everyone that organised, spoke and contributed to a such an informative day.

Recently the juveniles have spent some time around the nest site area and the female even landed on the plinth above the nest. They have also been seen eating prey items on King's spires that were brought in by the adults. Thanks Paul for info and photos/videos!

The adult male was perched on the nest site ledge with a bulging crop and the female juvenile on a King's spire this lunchtime. In the last couple of weeks the adult female has spent considerable time on the UL and the male juvenile does his own thing and spends time on the wing.