Blogs

We certainly hope it is as you join us at Neumann's Flash for some superb views of the three newly-hatched black-winged stilt chicks.

With the Manchester peregrine chicks seemingly growing bigger by the hour, have you ever wondered what they are eating?

Well, we have been monitoring what the parents are bringing their growing chicks, and it appears to be mostly feral pigeons. However, we have also seen black-headed gulls, and on one occasion what looked like a starling, being bought to the nest.

Interestingly, some of our urban peregrines are known to hunt at night - the artificial light allowing them to easily catch prey as their eyesight is so much better than ours - and the remains of black-necked grebes and snipe have been found. Both of these are nocturnal migrating species that could only have been caught at night.

Although our peregrines have so far been conventional in their choice of prey, from studies of just a few peregrine nests, it has been shown that they will take a huge range of species from goldcrests to mallards, and even a number of escaped cage birds, including the remains of cockatiels, budgerigars, parakeets and a Canary. We will be sure to let you know if anything interesting does turn up on the menu!

First contact with the Chichester peregrine chicks reveals three boys and a girl.

Sexing the four was done by measuring the size of each chick’s wingspan and weight. They were also fitted with unique rings to enable us to identify them in the future.

Keep an eye on the family with our webcam, or join us at our viewpoint as the youngsters become increasingly mobile - learning to fly and hunt.

Well, if you ignore the sharp beak and talons!

Last week, the Manchester peregrine chicks were taken briefly from their nest to be ringed.

All four - one female and three males - are well grown, healthy and had full crops.

Their mum, as last year, made a real racket at first but settled down eventually.

We hope she can forgive the brief intrusion but the scientific and protective value of ringing chicks and taking a bit of down for a DNA database is well worth it, helping us understand more about these amazing birds and where they go.

Two peregrine chicks have hatched at City Hall clock tower in Cardiff's civic centre. We expect the youngsters to fledge in early June.

Join us at our viewpoint to see this fantastic bird family for yourself. From the parents bringing food to the nest, through to the young adults putting on fantastic aerial displays as they learn to fly and hunt, you'll be in for some amazing views.

Those viewers of the live webcam will already know that on Sunday afternoon we welcomed two new goshawks into the New Forest family fold.

Hatched within half an hour of each other, all eyes are now on the final two eggs, which could hatch any day now.

Known as the 'phantoms of the forest' due to their elusive behaviour, only 410 breeding pairs of goshawks exist in UK, including those resident to the New Forest.

Join us at our viewpoint to see the chicks at their cutest, and from June, the goshawks will hopefully be joined by a second bird of prey family, as we transmit the fortunes of a pair of New Forest hobbies as they also raise a family together.

Kittiwakes are steadily returning back to the cliffs at Seaford. There are currently around 250 nests that are visible from our viewpoint, plus another 150+ nests around the other side of the cliff that aren't!

Some kittiwakes are sitting on eggs, and there are up to four pairs of fulmars nesting within the kittiwake colony.