Thank you to todays bloggers of Jonathon, Rachel, Andrew, Rachel again, Graham and Debbie for todays blog
04.46 Tiercel enters the box where the falcon has spent the night
09:01 Empty Nest Camera 2 looks NW over a grey North Sea.
09:03 Building work taking place as heard on Camera.
09:05 Poppy (Falcon) arrives and sits down on the scrape.
09:06 Gulls heard in the distance.
09:11 Poppy is alert, but dozing with feathers ruffling in the breeze.
09:15 Poppy is keeping watch. No sign of Henry (Tiercel).
09:21 More building work heard.
09:25 Poppy turns 180 degrees and faces Left to Right, but still alert.
09:26 Car Alarm heard in background, but no reaction from Poppy.
09:28 Church clock strikes for 09:30 and Poppy is still alert.
09:32 Poppy is Asleep but turns head.
09:39 Camera 2 looks for Henry, but no sign of him on any favoured parts of the Tower (Thanks Chris/Kim for checking).
09:42 Poppy is fast asleep with her head under her wing. (Looks headless on the camera.
09:44 Wakes up briefly, before returning to Sleep.
09:48 Sunshine wakes her up. But she sleeps again.
09:57 Big Yawn from Poppy and a car horn is heard.
09:58 Church Clock chimes for 10:00
10:01 Birdsong is heard but not gulls or Peregrine.
10:07 Poppy wakes up after her big sleep and turns to face Right to Left before biting some gravel in the corner of the box.
10:09 Calls heard from Henry (Tiercel)
10:13 Henry arrives and Poppy (Falcon) departs
10:14 Henry moves a bit of gravel with Talons, then sits down before facing cameras. Turns round and sits down again.
10:16 Henry Departs, but calls. Back to Empty Nest.
10:18 Calls heard, so he is possibly on the roof of the church.
10:20 Silence with a slight breeze.
10:28 Church Clock strikes 10:30.
10:56 Distant Calls heard.
10:58 Church Clock chimes for 11:00.
10.58 as I take over the watch on the bell tolls of the hour both the camera shows no sign of either peregrine. The tide is nearly in, the sea calm, the sky is filled with patchy fluffy clouds and breeze is evident. The external camera is focussed on the NW turret.
11.00 the external camera is panned seeking out our pair. Poppy (the female, falcon) is located sitting in the shade on a crocket on the SW turret, she appears alert and is perusing her domain.
11.18 Poppy turns, hops up to a higher crocket on the corner of the turret and is now perched in the watery sun.
11.21 Poppy returns to her previous position in the shade.
11.24 I can now here a peregrine calling, I believe it’s Poppy but she’s little difficult to see, she calls a few times and then goes quiet again.
11.30 the church bell tolls half past the hour and there’s no change except Poppy has stopped calling
11.42 no change save Poppy now beginning to preen herself.
11.55 Poppy has been preening all this time but now stops and seems poised ….
12.00 the church bells tolls telling Cromer its noon and despite my earlier observation Poppy is settled again just watching the world go by from her vantage point. The wind is getting up as was forecast.
12.15 nothing has changed, Poppy remains observing her world and Henry (the male, tiercel) has yet to put in appearance this shift.
12.30 the bell strikes half past the hour and nothing has changed. Suddenly calling and answering can be heard, it appears to be Poppy instigating it, she has turned slightly on her crocket.
12.32 the response (presumably Henry) is more of a low clucking / chirruping type noise. Poppy decides exercise her bowels right at us! He is very close by but still out of sight.
12.35 Poppy’s calling intensified and she flies in a diving motion seemingly onto the tower roof. This is met with calling responses.
12.39 calling can be heard again a little more distantly now
12.41 Poppy returns accompanied by calling back to her previous position she is very alert and looking around while calling.
12.43 Poopy sits still calling on the turret but Henry has flown in the next box and is standing in the scrape chirruping back at her.
12.45 Henry hops to sit on the ledge at the front of the box, the pair are quiet now and Poppy’s position is unchanged.
12.47 Henry begins to preen himself
12.49 quick preen over and Henry his surveying his rooftop view meanwhile Poppy still sits on her crocket preening periodically
12.51 Poppy has her head over tucked into her wing sleeping now, Henry is closing his eyes on and off too.
12.52 the bells strikes one, my shift concludes with Henry and Poppy in the aforementioned positions.
13.00 the church bell strikes and I hand over to Graham as Poppy continues to call increasingly and seems a little unsettled, I can now hear her being responded too presumably by Henry.
13.00 Male perched on edge of nest box. Female perched on SE pinnacle. Male rakes out scrape the lies down.
13.21 Rain starting to obscure Cam 2.
13.56 Male flies from nest box. Female still on pinnacle.
14.00 Raindrops blurring Cam 2:
14.20 Female defecates then flies to nest box. Cam 2 panning around. No sign of Male.
14.28 Female standing in scrape.
14.27 Female preening.
14.37 Female rakes at scrape.
14.50 Rain blurring Cam 2.
14.58 as I take back over the watch on the bell tolls of the hour both the weather has closed in this afternoon and is now windy and wet. The external camera is focussed on the SE turret and the next box camera shows our Poppy (the female, falcon) standing in the scrape looking out.
15.15 Poppy hasn’t moved bless her; she continues to just stand in the scrape… oh a penny for her thoughts.
15.20 the external camera pans around …. No sign of Henry. We are now facing the SW turret with raindrops tracking across the lens.
15.27 the bell strikes and there is no change.
15.45 believe it or not nothing has changed apart from occasionally looking left and right around Poppy hasn’t moved.
15.55 Henry (the male, tiercel) has just arrived on the SW turret and there was a short exchange of calling between him and Poppy she’s looking up at him rather sweetly. Second’s pass and he’s flown off, Poppy chirrups a little and appears to watch him fly off.
15.57 a short call can be heard
15.58 the bell strikes 4 and I hand over to Graham and Debbie to complete today’s watch.
16.00, now taking over from Rachel for 1/2 an hour then handing over to Debbie for the last 1/2 an hour with Poppy in the nest box, sitting in her scrape
16.10, Poppy eventually moves bending forward to take in a few stones, then moves to the front of the nest box whilst looking around
16.12, in a blink of an eye Poppy vanishes, suddenly the camera comes into life exploring the church roof with no one in sight
16.15, someone's voice bellows out from somewhere out of sight of the camera
16.30, my shift over, handing over to Debbie
16.30 No peregrines to see or hear
16.41 Distant calling
16.43 More distant calling along with close squeaking as Poppy arrives into the nest box
16.44 Henry calling off camera, then he flew by and up to land on a SW ledge
16.46 Henry hops up one ledge and is calling
16.47 Both settled and resting
17.00 Watch ends