nice to catch up there on your home turf dean!

cracking flight views just after you left - male overhead filling my bins.

saw some spectacular stoops but no strikes. female brought in a bird, stripped it of lots of feathers had a small snack on it then stashed it behind the vase things where the ravens nest is - a couple of hours later the male returned empty clawed and began eating it!

good views of all 3 chicks on and off, including some wing flexing.

great to meet steve astley up there too, and almost forgot, ian chisnel (sp).

I would urge anyone interested in seeing the Peregrines to make the effort and go and enjoy the brilliant views from the market hall car park. There cant be many places where you can watch the Peregrines at eye level like this. The young are growing fast as pigeon after pigeon is brought in by the male and passed to the female. The peregrines can be seen plucking the pigeons on the ledges before feeding the young.

Access is from Bridge Street into the market hall car park above Debenhams, drive right to the top, level 3, and view the town hall clock tower. Cost is £1.20 for an hours parking. You can enjoy peaceful uninterrupted viewing because you dont get any non-birders coming up to you asking what are you taking pictures of? or are you from the papers? The car park seems to close about 6pm in the evenings I think.

Urban birding at its best

Sorry not to be able to stay longer, Neil, but duty called! All three chicks were female, and were a good weight. We had to interrupt a pigeon lunch, I'm afraid! All have red Darvics with one letter and one number, as well as a metal ring. I have sent Ian some pics which he may be able to put up, and the Bolton News have some that should be in tomorrow's paper.
The remaining egg was empty,(probably cracked) and was therefore able to be removed from the nest by our licensed ringer, and was presented to Bolton Museum. (Otherwise it would have to have gone for analysis to see if there were any pesticides etc which prevented it hatching)

Great views today. Female feeding chicks while male looked on. Chicks showing above the lip of the tray now. She had a fly around then returned to the top of the tower to preen.

Dean.

Forgot to add 2 Arctic Terns flew over heading north.

-- Edited by Dean Macdonald at 22:34, 2008-05-30

-- Edited by Dean Macdonald at 22:36, 2008-05-30

Not seen the chicks but did hear Peregrine type screeching above Churchgate. Unfortunately was unable to investigate as I would have lost my place in the que for a pastie outside Ye Olde Pastie Shop.

I will be going up to see what's in the tray as soon as the weather permits, as I am on the ringer's Sch 1 licence. The purpose of this visit will be to establish the age (and number) of the chicks, for ringing purposes, as they must be a certain age. It would have been tomorrow, but the weather forecast is awful.

Bugger Thanks Melanie. I'll go after work tomorrow

Cheers Dean.

Great news about the Peregrines. Not been able to get a look all weekend. Was going to go to the Car park today but was told it was closed due to bank holiday.

Was it open?

Dean.

saw the female Peregrine this afternoon ripping a Pigeon to shreds on the nest, couldnt see any chicks though but its looking good. The male was flying around too.

Judith Smith wrote:

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The Bolton News had the Peregrines as their front page story today, featuring a large picture of what looks like a Saker, perched on a log, alongside a picture of one of the actual pair sitting near the clock - obviously not the same species. Inside they have a picture of one of the pair on the Bolton Parish Church. Given that their office is next door to the church, I'm surprised they didn't notice them long ago.
I saw an incubation changeover today at 1035hrs from the Market Place Car Park and the bird which had been relieved flew straight to the church tower where it sat on the W face, in the top RH corner. So all is well there.
The text in the paper managed to attribute various statements to me which bear no resemblance to what I said (despite my telling the reporter I was speaking slowly so he could write it all down) but nothing too dreadful, and managed to transform the Greater Manchester Bird Recording Group into "Great Manchester County Birding (GMCB)"

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Sadly, this is rather typical of our local rag. They've now covered this story twice and shown pictures of American Kestrel and Saker Falcon. Not even British birds
Like you say Judith, you only need to look at the two pictures today to see they are not the same species.
I suppose they did get one thing right, there is some "Great Manchester County Birding" to be had around here

Cheers Dean.

The Bolton News had the Peregrines as their front page story today, featuring a large picture of what looks like a Saker, perched on a log, alongside a picture of one of the actual pair sitting near the clock - obviously not the same species. Inside they have a picture of one of the pair on the Bolton Parish Church. Given that their office is next door to the church, I'm surprised they didn't notice them long ago.
I saw an incubation changeover today at 1035hrs from the Market Place Car Park and the bird which had been relieved flew straight to the church tower where it sat on the W face, in the top RH corner. So all is well there.
The text in the paper managed to attribute various statements to me which bear no resemblance to what I said (despite my telling the reporter I was speaking slowly so he could write it all down) but nothing too dreadful, and managed to transform the Greater Manchester Bird Recording Group into "Great Manchester County Birding (GMCB)"

I saw one adult bird flying around the town hall, before perching at 13:15 yesterday.

K

Saw Peregrine perched on same ledge as nest tray from top of the multi storey carpark. Felt like a rooftop sniper setting my scope up, was expecting security to show but they didn't.

The female was sitting snugly on the nest tray this afternoon, just turning the eggs once whilst I was there. (Floor 3 of the Market Place car park). No sign of any Ravens or the male - but if he is like the Manchester bird, he will have found a perch from which he can watch the nest, but some distance away.

Good news at last. The female was sitting in the tray for all the time I was watching from Floor 3 of the Market Hall car park - 3/4 hour. No sign of the male, or of any Ravens.
You have to wait to see her have a shuffle, or (presumably) turn the eggs. Now we have to be patient for 28 days or more...

I was at Bolton Town Hall today from 4.00pm to just gone 8.00pm and met up with Anthony Bremnar the council's Sustainable Development Officer. Whether or not the birds have successfully bred is in truth an unknown. I do have concerns though. On my last visit the two peregrines spent a lot of time chasing the ravens. The weather has been pretty cold of late and I wonder if this has had some negative impact.

Today, I saw only one bird. It caught a pigeon and brought it to the east ledge. It never throughout my visit take any part of the pigeon to the actual nest site. Whilst feeding , a magpie dared to pick up some loose morsal very close to the peregrine and was not chased off. If there was a nest site to protect I wouldhave expected a pro active gesture from the peregrine. After having had a good feed the bird returned to the nest ledge but as far as I could make out did not visit the tray. From my experience and obsevations I would have expected there to be quite a bit of calling and some activity going on with both birds at some point. The bird made just one call in 4 hours and I am wondering now if the female has abandoned the nest site. Of course it could be that the female was well fed and simply performing her duty. Males do not like to engage unless necessary.


I might mention also that the ravens have not been seen for two days and I did not see them today. I sincerely hope there has not been a clash with fatal injuries involved.

I don't think things are looking good...but I hope.

If you want to watch or photograph the birds, I advise don't go alone and expect a few idiots. I might add that the two homeless people who came and spoke to me were very nice, very respectful, and I hope their luck changes, very soon.

Fingers crossed.

AD



-- Edited by Adrian Dancy at 02:22, 2008-04-23

Saw 1 bird over Bury rd on the way to work this morning. Any closer it'll be a garden tick

Didn't see any activity at break or dinner time which could be a good sign but i think we're clutching at straws here

Cheers Dean.

Went down to Victoria sg at 5.15 today. Both birds were in and out of the tray. Male flew in and went onto the tray, the female then flew out. She circled a couple of times then returned to the tray. The male then flew out. She then appeared on the ledge and sat for a good 10 mins just looking into the tray. The male was circling above calling constantly, as if telling her to get back in the tray. She did go back on briefly but then flew off over the town centre, followed by the male. I lost sight and they didn't return while i was there.

No sign of the Ravens.

Both Peregrines were in the air at 10am and 1pm yesterday.
Still doesn't look any constant sitting is going on.

Dean.

Apparently they were seen mating on 28th March so all is not lost!

No sign today, only a very brief look from work.

Sadly, my Car trouble is terminal so i'm without wheels for the time being. If anyone could get to the car park roof and take a look i would appreciate it. I'll do my best to get down and take a look.

Cheers Dean.

Yes, Ravens and Peregrines can nest very close to each other. The received wisdom is that there are a few skirmishes but on the whole they ignore each other; if there is a real fight the Peregrines win. But I know from experience (cannot go into site details) that this is not always the case as I have personally seen a Raven force a Peregrine off its eggs and then predate 2 of them! I wrote it up for British Birds.
In my opinion the Ravens are on eggs. For the Peregrines, we'll just have to wait patiently.
Meanwhile, I hear there is a lot of activity at the CIS building in Manchester city centre, where we installed a nest box in 2006, on the upper N side of the tower, when the solar panels were being put in. One panel was left out and a nest box inserted (with camera to be activated if they breed). If anyone is passing by there, reports would be welcome.

Ravens and Peregrines can nest suprisingly close together, the example I'm thinking of is at South Stack RSPB on Anglesey, N.Wales. Sounds unheard of in an urban setting though!

1 Peregrine on the clock tower at lunchtime.

Both Ravens were very active maybe they've got young.

Dean.

1 bird on Parish Church 1pm.

Dean.