The peregrines (Falco peregrinus) at Salisbury Cathedral are nesting again (yay – last year for the first time since 2014 there were no eggs laid, booo).

Peregrine on the nest box, 3 May 2019. Still from the Cathedral’s live webcam feed.

The Cathedral has two webcams set up this year – they can both be found here (the sound appears to be on for the first one, a noisy hissing, so reaching for the mute might be useful).  The peregrines also have a YouTube channel, which confusingly wasn’t updated in 2018 – the videos are here instead.

Last year was an eventful one in that there were plenty of adult peregrines on the site, but no eggs were laid. Fingers crossed for this year: I gather an egg was laid on 8 April but can’t find out if any more were laid (clutches are usually between 3 and 4 eggs, I gather). I’ll just have to wait until the incubating bird moves off the nest.

UPDATE 5 May 2019: I’ve just found this video on Youtube (on the Cathedral’s main channel rather than the dedicated peregrines’ one), which tells that four eggs have been laid (8, 10, 12 and 15 April), and as incubation is 29-32 days, they are expected to hatch in the middle of May.

UPDATE 29 May 2019: It looks from the webcams like there are four babies in the nest. Yay!

Four fluffy peregrine chicks on the nest, 29 May 2019.

Different view of the parent peregrine with some of the chicks visible. 29 May 2019.

Found a Salisbury Cathedral video on Youtube which tells they were born, one a day, on 15-18 May.

UPDATE 11 June 2019: The four chicks (three females and one male) were ringed.

UPDATE 14 June 2019:  I have seen one chick by the nest on the webcam, and we have had several days of very cold, wet weather. I do hope the other three have survived, and have merely wandered off camera.

UPDATE 18 July 2019: Two young ornithologists from the Cathedral School present an update on Youtube. The four chicks (Sky, Petunia, Pansy, and Perry) have all fledged successfully. Sally, last year’s female, has left Salisbury, flying east along the A303 corridor to Wincanton, and last recorded in Trowbridge: