Easter surprise as peregrine falcon chicks hatch at Worcester Cathedral
'They're back!'
'They're back!'
The wait is on for three more peregrine falcon chicks to hatch at Worcester Cathedral.
They first appeared on Easter Sunday in the nesting box there, in what was a bit of a holiday gift for those in the city.
Peter & Peggy (Mr & Mrs P) are back at the nest for 2025, with bosses at the Cathedral saying: "Let's hope for another successful year of breeding!"
They're Worcester’s successful breeding pair of peregrine falcons - with thousands logging onto the live feed to watch their antics.
The earliest record of a peregrine using a building goes back to 1864/65 at Salisbury Cathedral, and today, they now nest on over 200 urban or man-made locations across the country.
A recent survey by the British Trust for Ornithology shows that urban peregrines are doing much better than those in rural upland areas.
According to those at the Cathedral, they say the oldest appearance of these creatures appeared in Ulisse Aldrovandi’s “Ornithologiae”, which was published in 1610.
Aldrovandi’s writings tell us much about renaissance attitudes to the natural world, as well as giving a glimpse of how that world has changed in the last 350 years.
It was back in the 1960s when their numbers dwindled, because of centuries of hunting and persecution by humans - as well as the impact of pesticides making their way into the food chain.
And since 2012, the Cathedral has been livestreaming footage of their breeding couple online - something now that's been emulated at sites across the country, and wider Europe, including in Italy.