A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

... all creatures great and small
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A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

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Like the late Chaircat Midge, I am not always right.
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A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

Post by eccles »

:clap
In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.
(Terry Pratchett 1948-2015)
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A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

Post by merry »

Hurrah for Winnie! :clapping
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A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

Post by merry »

She's not there at the moment, but I'll keep an eye.

Lovely sharp stream! Remember when they used to be fuzzy and hard to make out?

The percolator :lol
"... not to be told a story, but to live inside a dream." - Hades, The Burnt City
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A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

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I saw her perched on the gully wall yesterday - looking as if she was thinking Where is that young tercel William?
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A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

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Peregrine William returned as well, and Winnie laid her first egg of four on 22 March and the fourth egg yesterday; they don't think she will lay any more. The eggs should start hatching at the end of April. William is sharing incubation duties with Winnie.
Like the late Chaircat Midge, I am not always right.
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A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

Post by Furby »

Its sad that they cant have a little roof over the eggs and poor thing has to sit in the rain.

And its left them now dont they need to be minded all the time.

They both came back and then one sat on the eggs and the other one flew off.
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A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

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Don't worry Furby, they don't leave the eggs unattended for very long. Winnie will do most of the incubating, with William taking over when Winnie decides she needs to have some lunch or dinner etc.

When the chicks arrive William might give them cover when they are very small, but he soon won't be able to because he is smaller than Winnie. After hatching it won't be too long before the chicks can cope with bad weather and then the parents will be in the vicinity to protect them from predators instead of the elements.
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A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

Post by OurCreature »

Just seen Winnie and William having a discussion about what to do with today's dinner leftovers - which now probably are somewhere on the ground in front of the North Transept. Winnie now is incubating her 4 eggs while William is perched out of sight round the corner - I saw him peep round from his perch on the wall and then shuffle away.
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A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

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The first chick hatched yesterday.
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A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

Post by OurCreature »

Winnie is feeding the sole chick to have hatched so far. There is a possibility that some/all of the other eggs won't hatch because April wasn't a very good month for incubating eggs even though either Winnie or William were keeping the eggs warm nearly all the time. The remaining eggs should hatch this week.
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Post by OurCreature »

Still only the one chick - looks very noisy and healthy - unless more chicks are hiding under Winnie. There is at least one egg unhatched and they should nearly all have hatched by now.

Just seen Winnie get up and there is only one chick - the other 3 eggs are unhatched. I have a gut feeling they are doomed to never hatch. At least the chick won't have much competition for food even if one of the remaining eggs hatches.
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Post by Furby »

How sad. I have finally seen the chick each time I looked it was being sat on. None of it's parents are there now it's sat there opening mouth in vain. I can see three dead eggs. Where do chicks go when they grow up aren't many cathedrals left are there so suppose one chick is better more chance it can find a home of its own.
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A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

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The Cathedral website has confirmed they don't expect any of the remaining eggs to hatch, but bemoans the fact that the chick won't benefit from the stimulus of having even one sibling to experiment with and learn from. The plus side is that the chick will grow fast without any competition for food.

As to where the chicks go when they leave the nest; they'll find somewhere to nest if they pair up with another peregrine. Winnie is an old bird now and the time can't be far off when her nest box gets stolen by a younger fitter female, unless she keels over and dies first like Chester did.
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A Peregrine Returns To Winchester Cathedral.

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Rain again today for the peregrines, and Winnie is looking rather bedraggled and fed up.
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I saw the chick today; it has been there for just over a week and is now considerably bigger than the three dead eggs.
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Post by OurCreature »

Winnie looks as if she has given up on one of the dead eggs - it is lying between her and the little ramp from the nest box facing the door. I suppose there is less room underneath her for dead eggs as the chick grows.

Winnie doesn't look all that comfortable; I think she hasn't looked all that happy ever since she laid her first egg, and I wonder if this will turn out to be her final breeding season.
Like the late Chaircat Midge, I am not always right.
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Post by Furby »

It must be very upsetting having three children die. People have all sorts of counselling but birds just have to get on with it. Does she sit on the chick all the time except feeding time until all the other eggs hatch every time I look except that once she is just sat there in the rain its a miserable life.
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The latest commentary says they will inspect the rapidly growing chick next week and remove the dead eggs. There's a new pic up of William gazing at the chick which looks as if it is reading the riot act at him about not being fed food when it wants it etc. Children sometimes are so ungrateful......................meanwhile one of the eggs is out of the way on the side of the nest box.
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Post by Furby »

What would they do with the eggs will they just go in the food recycling bins or will they be examined to see why dead.
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