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.
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
The 2026 breeding season is upon us.
At the beginning of February I cleaned the platform, gave the cameras a clean and added new gravel in preparation for the season ahead.
On the 11th February there was presumably a territorial battle as a male Peregrine ended up on its back, grounded in the courtyard, it took a while to recover but did fly away.
It now looks like this male was (at least up to this date) our resident male of our pair, which carried a metal (BTO) ring on one leg.
The big news today is that we have a new male with our female on the platform, I saw this tonight when I watched for 15 minutes to see what was going on with our pair.
As soon as I saw him he looked different, a big, boldly marked bird, and then after giving the stached feral pigeon dinner to the female I saw he had no ring !
So unless our 'old' male is still around and willing to try and fight his way back in, we have a new pairing for 2026.
There'll be a couple more weeks yet of display between the pair, so if you can get into town and watch them live - seeing a pair of Peregrines in a full on display is beyond breath taking !!
We hope you enjoy watching the fastest animal on earth :)
Mike
More wonderful news :)
A few hours after my last post (June 10th) our third chick took a leap of faith and launched itself into the Aylesbury skies, with thx to Bev for the updates on the day.
On Friday morning I spent some time with the Peregrine family inside StadiumMK, all 3 chicks are doing well and the parents were attentive.
On Saturday morning I went to High Wycombe and saw at least three of the fledged chicks there, plus the adult male, all going well here too.
Then this morning I received an amazing screengrab of our Aylesbury birds, from our live feed, with thx to Ginny and Pete ! It was taken at about 1030, in it the whole family, 2 adults and 3 fledged young are on the platform eating Sunday brunch together - it made my weekend :)
So we have 7 successfully fledged out of 7, with only one rescue so far and that bird is now flying with it's siblings. If the 3 in the stadium can make it, we'll have 10 out of 10 :):)
Fabulous news !
Enjoy
Mike