Cromer Peregrines blog – Sunday 2nd April 2023
We have 3 eggs! The great news today is that “Poppy” laid her 3rd egg in the wee small hours at 0118 hrs this morning.
Here we are afforded a glimpse of all 3 eggs while it was still dark.

Today dawned warmer than yesterday, still breezy but the sun got up eventually.
1100 hrs my shift starts with Tiercel (male) on the eggs looking relaxed
1104 hrs the Tiercel is snoozing
1107 hrs the Falcon (female) can be heard calling from out of shot
1109 hrs the Tiercel appears alert
1112 hrs he chirrups once
1114 hrs the Falcon can be heard calling
1117 hrs the Falcon can be heard calling, the Tiercel appears alert and looking around
1119 hrs from Whatsapp the Falcon has been reported on the South East pinnacle for about 10 minutes before taking flight. The Tiercel shuffles himself about with a brief glimpse of the eggs.

1120 hrs the Tiercel bobs on the eggs, chirrups and settles himself again. The Falcon is reported drifting around the tower
1123 hrs the Tiercel seems relaxed
1129 hrs the Tiercel appears alert
1140 hrs the Tiercel pecks at gravel
1143 hrs the Tiercel is pecking at the gravel again
1150 hrs the Tiercel appears relaxed
1156 hrs the Tiercel bobs on eggs
1202 hrs the Tiercel seems alert again
1207 hrs the Tiercel repositions himself on the eggs
1213 hrs he is alert and chirping. The Falcon appears on rooftop and enters the box. After a lot of chirping from both birds, the Tiercel leaves and the Falcon settles down on eggs.

1215 hrs the Falcon repositions herself on the eggs
1218 hrs the Falcon can be seen looking around
1237 hrs it’s the Falcon’s turn to pecks at the gravel now
1239 hrs she repositions on the eggs again
1243 hrs she’s stretching out her neck and there’s pecking at the gravel
1244 hrs she partially stands, turns around a little and then resettles on eggs facing out of the box
1245 hrs she can be seen preening
1249 hrs the Tiercel can be heard calling loudly as he lands on the fleur de lis with prey

The Falcon joins in with this calling and leaves box and camera zooms in on eggs. This calling continues for a minute or so.

Our cameraman captures a great photo of the eggs (and a pellet laying just in front of them).

1251 hrs the Tiercel come back to the box and into view and settles on the eggs, while he was gone the Whattsapp reports he’s caught a Woodcock landing first on the fleur de lis before coming onto the roof of the tower.

1254 hrs the Tiercel is alert.
1300 hrs my shift ends and I’m handing over to Debbie
1300 hrs the Tiercel sits on eggs facing right (East)
1334 hrs the falcon is sitting sleeping in the sun

1345 hrs he shuffles a bit and ends up facing almost the same way
1444 hrs in the full sun

1500 hrs My quiet shift ends
1500 hrs the male is keeping the eggs warm, we anticipate incubation may now have begun in earnest as Poppy, as we affectionately refer to her, usually lays 3 eggs.

1501 hrs the male begins picking at the gravel and shuffling the eggs about
1623 hrs the male appears to be very relaxed on the eggs
1632 hrs the male remains in position on the eggs he looks around and starts calling
1647 hrs the female can be heard calling in the background
1700 hrs as my shift ends the male remains incubating the eggs.
Blog ends for the day.
Thanks today to our blog volunteers today – Kim, Chris, Andrew, Debbie & Brendan
These photos are stunning. And thank you for the blog too, nice to know we can catch up on the day's events ☺️