2 Peregrines putting on quiet a noisy display on the church tower today. I've seen 2 birds pretty regularly this last few weeks but it doesn't look like a breeding attempt has been made. The female should be sitting by now. The pair seem to be staying together though, so could be good news for the future.

Cheers Dean.

Peregrine seen at dusk flying onto town hall clock tower

Anthony has left Bolton MBC and is working for Natural England in Cumbria now.

Could be sitting? Time is about right.

Both birds calling in the air together at lunchtime today. One bird, the male, settled on the church tower but didn't see where the female landed. Could've been on the other side of the tower. Still not yet managed to get any decent close views of the birds together. I've had severel reports from people who've heard them being very noisy in the town centre. So it's looking good so far.

Cheers Dean.

I took the Dunlin into the Bolton Museum as it was fresh and uneaten, and Pat Francis (senior keeper) showed me the mounted adult female Peregrine which was found dead in the churchyard at Bolton Parish Church on 16th December 2009, which she has just received. The taxidermist's report was attached. It didn't die of coccoidosis as first thought, but as follows (extract from report by Phil Leggatt):
"On examining the thawed bird its cause of death is fairly apparent. The crop had a small puncture in it which has become very badly infected causing it to become full of pus, very swollen (instead of the thin pink membrane it usually is). The smell from it was very pungent. The body was otherwise unmarked [with no trauma]...I have come across this several times before in both wild and captive-bred raptors when a small bone or fragment punctures the crop membrane due to the pressure of an engorged crop, preventing the bird from putting its crop over to the stomach, and the food mass effectively rots in the crop if the bird does not expel it. The bird usually dies in a few days from the resulting infection."

I took a photo of the mounted bird and have sent it to Ian for possible inclusion on the website. The natural history part of the museum is closed till November for major building works.



-- Edited by Judith Smith on Tuesday 9th of March 2010 08:24:22 PM

Both birds displaying over the clock tower at 1pm today.

Pair of birds on parish church 10.00 a.m. today.
Cheers Ian

2 birds on the Parish Church making one hell of a racket this morning.

Yep, 2 birds on the church at 12.30 Couldn't see if the female had a ring as i didn't have my bins today.

Good news. I had a call from the Town Hall today to tell me the scaffolding will be removed from the Town Hall clock tower very shortly - by the end of the month - so breeding should be able to go ahead assuming we get a new female.
At the Parish Church, they are getting a lot of problems with dead pigeons and feathers blocking the drainage channels so that wet rot is beginning. So they will be putting a mesh across the top of the tower to prevent this.

The remaining male bird is still frequenting the parish church. I see it most days and yesterday there was the corpse of a pigeon on the drainage spout. I hope another female arrives in the area but nesting on the town hall looks out of the question this year as i've been told the work on the clock won't be finished until june.

Dean.

very sad news, i used to love seeing them around the town hall in bolton,i went in town with digiscope kit to get some photos on a saturday, everyone asking what are you looking at, a lot of people knew what they were, quite infamous i would say, i hope a pair comes back again next year

Judith Smith wrote: (OK I know it's incest but there you are...)

Quite normal in Bolton

Very sad news, I too hope this is not the end of breeding birds in Bolton.

I have now had chance to do full measurements and weigh this bird. In my opinion it is an adult female. It's fully slate grey and no suggestion of rufous on it. I have sent the photos to our ringer and to a Peregrine expert I work with, with the measurements, and if I'm wrong, will post! It's important we find what killed this bird, as adults - this could be, probably is, our breeding female - have a much higher survival than juvs. There may be underlying causes such as pesticides. It was underweight (890g cf range of 925g - 1333g) and appeared to have a broken neck - possibly due to a collision with the tower?

It's now in my freezer and I am waiting for Bolton Museum to decide if they can afford to pay for a taxidermist to mount it. If that is the case, the organs will be removed and sent to the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology's Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme for analysis. If the museum doesn't want it, the bird will go to CEH in its entirety.

The bird was found by a friend of mine working in the church yard this morning. I collected it and passed it on to Judith. It had no rings on, but it seems last years young from the town hall were not rung (for health ans safety reasons!!!) It looked like an adult, but tests will reveal its age, there were no obvious signs of injury.

That's terrible news. Hope it's not suspicous.

sat evening 7-30ish

walking towards town hall from railway station saw 1 Peregrine flying towards town hall with large prey item, 2nd peregrine already on town hall.

Early morning visit,result 1 or 2 adults seen first on the parish church then on the town hall ,right at the neck straining topdespite a 2 hour search of the town center I couldn,t locate the 'gang'.

cheers geoff

Popped in to see these birds this morning,three chicks and one adult seen a one stage
probably all six but it,s hard to keep track,quite a few fly rounds and two chicks fustratingly on the lower section of building but out of view

cheers geoffit,s sky blue not 'city'

Geoff some good shots of the Bolton birds

Photographing in Bolton or Manchester can get a bit hairy at times. Sadly when I was in Bolton a scroat tried it on with me and said menacingly I should give my camera to him. I'll spare you the details, but he was serious and so was my reply.

I actually liked doing the Bolton birds for most of the time, and most of the folk there were great. When I did the peregrine and magpie together about 50 people gathered round and the enthusiasm from the crowd was great but you can't take pics when people lean on your rig. One of the girls from a shop came out and said you must need a drink being here all this time and asked what I'd like to drink . You can't beat that for hospitality.

I'll let you know when I go to Bolton again, it will be in the next few days, though I hope by then I have got my main camera back from repairs. I've been photographing with a half clapped out camera for the last 3 weeks.

Yeah, Juvs well visible from the Library steps. Two in flight about 5.00pm today, one made it over to the museum/library roof (and shouted about it), then the other took off, then seemed to have second thoughts and went back to the town hall.

4 juveniles and 2 parents confirmed by Anthony Bremner this afternoon.