Aylesbury Peregrines
You are looking at the nest site of a pair of Peregrine Falcons, situated on the 12th floor of the Buckinghamshire Council building in Aylesbury town centre.
Peregrines are the fastest animal on the planet and can reach speeds in excess of 200mph.
They are an apex predator who catch and kill live birds on the wing - as such the footage here may contain gory images.
Peregrines first appeared on County Hall in 2007 and the nest platform was erected in 2010. They first attempted to breed in 2011 and birds have been present ever since.
The female is larger and greyer than the male. Our current male has a metal ring on his leg but we don't know where he is from.
Peregrines are awesome and exhilarating birds! We are very lucky to be able to watch these wonderful birds up close and personal.
Well the season is interesting to say the least, really incredible stuff !
Here follows a summary of the season so far -
In around Jan / Feb a new male (no metal ring) was paired with the resident female, the metal ringed male has not been seen since.
This new male and the female were seen copulating/ pair bonding.
28th March - 1st egg laid.
31st March - 2nd egg laid.
On the 2nd April a dead female Peregrine was found in Southcourt, Aylesbury. She is believed to be one of an intruding pair that arrived in the town.
On the 3rd April there had clearly been a huge fight and the gravel and the 2 eggs on the platform were displaced/ buried. A new male was seen wearing a red ring on his left leg.
The battle for the nest site intensified over the following days, culminating in a massive fight on the platform on the 9th April.
The resident male was ousted, and the new male with the red ring paired with the resident female, they were soon copulating.
2nd Clutch !!
28th April- 1st egg laid.
29th April - the female recovered one of the original eggs and rolled it into the scrape ! So whilst there were 2 eggs on this date by 7pm, one was one from March !
On this date- incredibly- a 2CY male was sitting on top of the box, observing the female recovering the egg, all captured on the feed. Could this bird be one of the young from last year ? If not, why would the female tolerate it being there ?
1st May - now 3 eggs, another laid.
4th May - 4 eggs, another laid.
Currently 4 eggs, which includes the recovered egg laid in March.
There is a possibility that a 4th egg could be laid in this 2nd clutch.
I wouldn't expect the egg laid in March and now in the scrape to hatch, but there's been so much going on this season- you never know !!
The current pair is our resident female and our new 'red-ringed' male.
Enjoy the goings on :)
Mike
Its now been 3 weeks since things took a dramatic turn, and we are still not sure what will happen with our 2026 breeding effort.
It's been an exciting and exhilarating few weeks, but ultimately we don't have any eggs currently being incubated but is our female about to lay again ?
This is my best offering as to what has happened (some is educated supposition) -
On Thur 2nd April an intruding pair of Peregrines arrived in Aylesbury with a view to taking over the nest site. A battle ensued and the female of the intruding pair was killed, as on the 2nd a dead female Peregrine was found in Southcourt, Aylesbury.
On the 3rd our female was still sitting on the 2 eggs in the morning, but by early afternoon there had clearly been a fight on the platform, with the eggs buried/ displaced and our pair very agitated (see last blog). This I presume was the intruding male having lost his mate, trying to force his way into the nest site and remove our male.
The new male has a colour ring (orange/red) on his leg, I've read the code and await the detyails of where he is from.
The battle clearly continued in the coming days with the two eggs now abandoned.
On the 9th April there was an incredible battle on/ around the platform, with 3 birds actually in the scrape fighting, the likes of which I've nevber seen- it was breathtaking.
Ultimately the intruding male appears to have one and has kicked out the resident male, who himself kicked out our initial male only 2 months ago.
I have seen the intruding male copulating (mating) with our female, so we may see some late eggs - we'll see.
Enjoy watching
Mike
Disaster yesterday - Friday 3rd.
I didn't actually see it, so supposition here, but maybe sometime between 1-1.30 pm a big incident has occurred at the platform, which I believe will be an intruding Peregrine, trying to take over the platform. At about 1.30 I saw the female Peregrine running around, making lots of noise, completely agitated. The male was sitting at the far end, back from the platform. They were both looking skywards with significant distress, presumably watching the intruder or watching out for its return. Whatever the melee, you can see lots of displaced gravel, one egg is half buried and the other towards the edge of the box.
At one point the male walked (limped) along the top of the box, he looked 'beaten up' with it looked like an injury, he flew off and has not been seen since (although he is often nearby and not on camera).
The female remained agitated for over an hour. She is still alone this morning and calling lots, presumably to/ for her mate.
I've simply no idea what will happen now, will she reorganise the eggs (if they're not broken) ? Will she re-lay ?
The next few days will tell !
Mike
The first egg has arrived :)
I was actually getting a little worried that we weren't going to see any ! It's getting a bit late, plus as we have a new male, effectively a new pair this can lead to a stuttering start to breeding success.
We may well see a reduced number of eggs due to this, but let's hope that they keep producing :)
We should hopefully see a new egg every 48-72 hrs, but it can be longer.
Please also don't worry if you see the egg(s) unattended/ not being incubated as incubation in ernest won't start until there's a full clutch.
Enjoy watching these magnificent birds !!
Mike