female peregrine flew onto city tower at 5.10pm.

Peregrine (female, I think) has been perched on Town Hall Clock Tower since 10am.

Single Peregrine on the Lowry Hotel calling this morning

A Peregrine landed at the top of the Beetham Tower at 2022 today.

1 Peregrine was circling over the gold ball on top of the Town Hall at 12.10pm today

not much activity this morning in the miserable weather but came back later after Rochdale & both adults were about doing there duties, at one point the female almost had a pigeon in her talons she did take a bunch of feathers of the pigeon though the pigeon got away.
also witnessed one of the juveniles in flight, it flew around a few times & landed back safely to its original spot.

From my observations it appears one bird might have fledged yesterday but I can say, thanks to Roy Riding, that all birds are now fledged.

I have noted activity around the CIS this year.
I suppose it's just out of the way that you would notice around doing your shopping..

Rob Smallwood wrote:

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Great news - any particular reason for the news blackout this season?

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Unfortunately I have not been able to attend Manchester as frequently as I would have wished for a number of reasons and I expected that if the birds were breeding the fact would be spotted by others. Judith and myself went to Angel Meadows on Sunday to scope the nest tray when we were able to see 3 chicks which were at peak age for ringing. In the circumstances there was good reason not to release information until the chicks had been ringed. The blackout lasted only two days

I am preparing images for use by the CIS who have responded quickly and cordially to our requests to access the tray and I will send some images to Ian in case he wishes to show them on this website. If the images appear anywhere they will be here first and though I say it myself some of them are cracking images.

Rob Smallwood wrote:

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Great news - any particular reason for the news blackout this season?

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No one was sure where they were breeding until a week or so ago!

Great news.

There has been quite a lot of Peregrine activity around the CIS tower over the last week or so, involving two birds at times. One has just stooped from the top of the tower after a couple of feral pigeons.

I was on High Street yesterday around 11am. I saw a male flying from the direction of Market Street towards the Cis. Couldn't see it around the Cis. The week before easter I was in Manchester and on most days i went down to the traditional nest site. I only saw the female on one occasion sat on the nesting ledge. She flew off and a short time later I saw her flying round the Cis building.

I can confirm that there is less to no activity around the traditional nest site based on my most recent observations and it would appear that the nest site has been abandoned. I was very concerned over a three day period not seeing the male bird and visited Manchester before sunrise to establish if a male was present and if the birds had taken to breeding at the CIS. I did take comfort in Steve Suttill's sighting of the birds being active around the CIS building. By the third day (Friday)I decided to investigate if there were any eggs in the tray and see if there was any evidence as to the cause of abandonment. From my observations from another building I was able to determine no eggs had been laid. Of course eggs may have been predated but my instinct was that this was probably not the case. I did however notice that the floor of the nest tray had dropped slightly and this gave me cause for concern. Arrangements were quickly made to replace the nest tray under cover of a one day license and Colin Brooks of Skyline offered his services to physically replace the tray. Colin replaced the tray with my minimal assistance. The job was done in about 24 mins with no birds at or near the site. Arrangements were far more time consuming.


We can speculate as to the cause of abandonment and it may well be because of the tray itself. However previous abandonment at the site resulted in breeding at the CIS building and this has seemingly not occurred this year.


In March I saw breeding take place only once (25th March) and refusal by the female to copulate several times before then. I think Steve Burke may have witnessed copulation. I do not know what others have seen. The female is getting on in years.


I am happy to say that last night, after having dropped in to see Steve Suttill at his place of work I was able to make a positive identification of the male bird and partner to the female since 2007. My positive identification was based on the absence of any ring on the legs and the habits which are more peculiar to this bird. The unusually long pointed bill which made a reliable ID feature was reduced in size last year but I am very confident that it was the usual male and not another.


No one is more sad about the situation than me and whilst it is still possible for breeding to take place I now doubt it will happen and I sincerely hope that breeding will take place next year.

Edit for correction.


-- Edited by Adrian Dancy on Tuesday 14th of April 2015 08:15:17 PM

Am I the only person concerned at the lack of activity around the recent breeding site?

Mid afternoon today, a Peregrine was riding the thermals just outside Victoria Station.

Both adults on view this morning in the sunshine, the male launching itself of the arndale to have a swoop at a passing crow right above my head, the male turned to have another go but the crow soon got the message
Much later as a buzzard drifted over the female was keeping a watchfull eye on it but made no attempt to waste her energy on it.

One seen over Portland Street around 12.45pm, fighting some strong gusts of wind.

Peregrine over the River Irwell heading towards the cathedral around lunchtime.

Have seen one perched on Town Hall clock tower a couple of times this week.

Enjoyed a 5 minute hunting display by one of the Peregrines in Piccadilly Gardens at around 1pm. Lots of Pigeon chasing, but no success as far as I could see when I lost sight of it.

One over the corner of Mancunian Way and Pollard Street this morning around 09:10am, heading East.

I think I saw something similar at Dove Stones on Sunday, a juvenile and adult calling to each other as the juvenile flew around getting to grips with life in the air. There were Kestrels in the vicinity which might have been behind it all

Also should report one of the juveniles being mobbed by Lesser Black-backed Gulls around Piccadilly Station early on the 9th of this month; they get about town don't they?

Just had a visit to Town Hall Clock Tower from two Peregrines - one of which was extremely vocal. I've always assumed that the screeching tends to come from the juvenile birds, is that so?