No problem Steven, maybe a long brood time you never no with nature.

Regards Brian.

Female off the nest at 8.28am for 6 minutes, 2 eggs still unhatched. Hatching usually occurs 28-36 days, now on day 36 !

Female just taken over from Male, still two eggs.

 

Craig Bell wrote:

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Havent been looking too frequently but every time except once when I have looked in, the male has been doing the incubating. 
Has that been a regular feature of this year? (or have I just looked in at times when it just happens to be the male??) If so, thats what would be expected of an inexperienced young female which dont usually breed successfully until the second summer.

-- Edited by Craig Bell on Tuesday 5th of May 2020 09:37:20 AM

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 Up until the last couple of days the male has undoubtedly done the lion's share of sitting based on my records and observations.

A couple of screen grabs attached.

Just coincidence I think Craig, It's usually her when I look ... so she's been doing her fair share .. She's sitting now at 10.55.

Think first due to hatch next Tuesday (12th) if fertile ??

Roger.

-- Edited by Roger Baker 3 on Tuesday 5th of May 2020 11:02:12 AM

17.47 23.3.2020 Male took over from female - two eggs.

Give her a chance ... Mozart had to learn how to play piano.

Second egg now laid...a few inches apart from first and had difficulty knowing how to sit on them being so far apart.

Paul Whiting wrote:

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First egg this morning

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....................................
So she's finally getting the hang of things ... great stuff .. I had virtually given up hope.

Roger.

First egg this morning

hi roger, I check everyday but have only been seeing the male doing his scraping, first time I have also seen her for a while. yes, craig mentions in his post about the females usualy need to be older. the pair are probably just bonding with each other & the box, hopefully next year.
have been watching them webcams & several others, all well in front.

The immature female was sat down in the tray earlier looking as if she may of been on an egg but unfortunately she got up & nothing there. Currently she is preening on the box edge.

Hi craig, I have been looking at the webcam since ian mentioned it was up & running in his post below every day but only once or twice a day & only briefly. I have seen nothing on the webcam until last Tuesday or Wednesday in the morning when the immature female was briefly on the tray, obviously a different bird & I didn't think any more of it as I thought it might of been an intruder. Then I seen your post & looked at the webcam a bit more since & only this morning around 10.20 am when the immature female flew in on the ledge & then on the tray, she was obviously calling as then the adult male came in & they were there for a minute or so just calling at each other then the male flew off, she stayed a little longer & what looked like a Woodpigeon ( I seen one on the tray yesterday morning) almost landed on the ledge & then realised a peregrine was there needless to say it soon flew off. Female flew off shortly after.
From what I could see of the legs of both birds there were no rings.
Not sure what is going on so definitely worth watching on site.
Maybe someone else knows a bit more.

The live webcam is apparently now back up and running.

Single male Peregrine seen on the Town Hall tower, sheltering rather lower down the tower than I have seen before.

fredford wrote:

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Please bring us up to date with news of the peregrines. Thank you.

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 I have not been to the site for a while. I am being updated by a local observer. I'm not aware if anyone has seen a juvenile recently. Ordinarily, the juveniles should be seen near the nest site on a daily basis owing to the fact that they will still be dependent.

The Rochdale Borough Council Facebook page has published an update which is designed to conform to a success narrative. Given the fact that I put in about 10 hours a day observing the birds and reporting my findings and having my reports ignored, I now wonder what is the point in providing them with updates. I am of course grateful to Rochdale for their cooperation in all regards except I no longer have time for their media office.

If you want to read a crock of **** click or copy and paste the link below:-

 https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=rochdale%20borough%20council&epa=SEARCH_BOX   See post dated 23rd July

-- Edited by Adrian Dancy on Sunday 28th of July 2019 06:09:52 PM

Debbie Elizabeth wrote:

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First post but have been a lurker for a while...so apologies for any novice questions....according to the Rochdale Borough Council fb page, the female potentially has a new mate, can anyone confirm this please as the intruder male, thankyou..

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 Hi Debbie,

Welcome to the forum. I have spent about 9-10 hours a day on site (since 15th June) watching the Falcons and dealing with issues should they arise. A new male came in and tried to kill the juveniles. In one aerial battle, the wing of one juvenile was damaged but it will not affect its flight much. The attacks by the male were vicious and brutal and in my view amounted to more than just trying to chase the birds out of the territory. For that reason, I searched Rochdale town centre looking for their dead bodies or otherwise injured birds. The female made an attempt to drive away the male but the male has been persistent. The juveniles are too scared to come back to the town hall roost and only do so occasionally. The female has been taking food out to the juveniles where they are in effect hiding from the male. The female is tolerating the male...but I cannot be sure why. The juveniles are not going to get the training they need if the male stays around much. The female has made contact calls with the male which are similar in nature to courting calls and I cannot understand why. One can only speculate.

I find the Rochdale FB post to be inconsistent with my observations which is regrettable since I have provided them with the facts and photographic evidence.

The images attached show the intruding male begin its attack on a perched juvenile. The second image shows the juvenile flipping itself over to defend itself with its talons. The juvenile then took to the sky and the male attacked it and damaged its wing.

All the best

Adrian  

 

-- Edited by Adrian Dancy on Wednesday 10th of July 2019 03:43:19 AM

Adult at nesting site on Sunday and again this morning [Tuesday.]

Saturday at 18.45. Adult at breeding site.

A few more details are available in these articles. I was only watching the birds myself on Monday evening, so its disappointing to read Adrian's latest update.

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/128678/peregrine-falcon-found-injured-in-broadfield-park

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/128792/injured-peregrine-falcon-dies

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/128861/peregrine-falcon-died-due-to-infection-postmortem-reveals

As for the aggressive intruder, this summary of the story of the Norwich Cathedral birds in 2016, shows just how aggressive they can be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5XZ6qDg3rs

Many many thanks to Adrian for keeping us upto speed and for his dedication!

I'm sure now it becomes more clearer now asto the likely reason why the male hasn't been seen (to my knowledge) feeding the chicks since his beak broke as he was trying his best to feed himself but unfortunately with little success.

A very sad outcome indeed!

I'm sure I will speak for everyone when I say thankyou so much for the dedication of those who have worked hard to follow and watch these stunning birds as they have given us much pleasure to watch the dramas that unfold. Who knows what the future would bring next!

Richard thanks for your concern. I hope you will forgive me but I do not wish to discuss this matter in detail on the internet. It seems some are labouring under the belief that the injury to the bill was the result of a collision on the day the bird was picked up. I do not want the vet labouring under that false history because clearly, the bird had issues before, which I think you accept. I informed Ian who cared for the bird of the fact that the bill was defective for several weeks prior to its being taken in. I did not say that I knew for sure there was a problem in 2014. Over the years I have made many hundreds of images and I recall at one point being concerned when viewing an image at what appeared to be a split/layer coming off the lateral aspect of the bird's bill. It could have been a photo anomaly but I did not think so at the time. The defect could easily be missed because of the nature of light on smooth shiny surfaces when there are not many pixels on the subject area. I have worked in the law for 35 years dealing with medical issues...diagnosis and causation can attract wildly differing opinions.
AD

Thanks, Adrian, let's hope for the best. It would be so sad to lose peregrines from the Town Hall

Robin Parker wrote:

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Given they've been there together since 2008, what is likely to happen now to the site? Will the female attract a new male, or will she go? Could a new pair make their home here?

 

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 Predicting the future for wildlife is a big ask. It would not be unreasonable to expect the female to protect her dominium. Opportunistic males and females will pass through her territory. If she can defend against another female I might guess there will be a good chance she will happen upon a male that has probably been born in or near our county and hopefully she will breed next year. Any male that replaces the one now deceased will have some big boots to fill.

Despite what may be said elsewhere on the internet, I am 100% sure he did not break his bill in a stoop/dive or chase on the day he was brought into care. He had problems with his beak weeks ago and possibly as far back as 2014 and before. That does not mean that he didn't have a collision...I simply say his beak was not injured by it. Hopefully, we will know the likely cause of death next week. 

-- Edited by Adrian Dancy on Sunday 30th of June 2019 12:50:41 AM