A massive thank you to Julia, Rachel, Graham and Debbie for todays blog and to Kim and Chris for the extra blog from the Church
9.00. The bells toll. BBC weather is showing 10c at Cromer, sunny with a light breeze.
The nest box is empty, still No egg. The other livestream camera is focused on the Falcon sitting by a fleur de lys on the S edge.
9.03. She is facing to the right, glances around then dozes.
9.24. The Tiercel can be heard calling once on the nest cam.
9.26. The Falcon shuffles around and settles facing the camera
9.30. The Church bell tolls. The box is still empty.
9.32. She turns around, now her back to the camera looking out over the town.
9.44. She cleans her talons and reaches over to preen her back feathers.
10.00. The Church bell tolls.
10.02. A couple of calls can be heard. She turns to her right, turns around again and walks along the ledge to the left out of camera view.
10.06. A quick glimpse of her head in the bottom left corner.
10.30. The Church bell tolls again.
10.32. The panoramic camera moves and is focused on the Falcon just a few feet from her previous position.
10.48. The Tiercel can be heard shrieking.
10.55. The Tiercel can be heard calling.
10.56. The Falcon stretches her legs and shakes her wings.
10.58. The Tiercel enters the box chirping and goes towards the back to peck at some gravel.
11.00 the female (falcon) is sitting in a shady spot on the roof of the tower occasionally closing her eyes while the male (tiercel) has just moved from the scrape and is now sitting alert in the sun on the ledge at the front of the box.
11.07 the male (tiercel) is very alert and lots of looking around
11.07 the male is preening, still soaking up the sun on the front of the box
11.10 the female is also now preening occasionally.
11.14 the female flies off and I can hear them both calling
11.15 the male retreats to stand in the scrape also small amounts of calling and a little housekeeping. Maybe he’s trying to tell Poppy he too is fed up waiting now.
11.16 the male moves back to sit on the ledge at the at the front of the box, no sign of the female despite the camera being panned a little.
11.22 the male (falcon) closing his eyes on and off resting in the sun om the edge of the box very occasional preening.
11.27 the male is sitting calmly and occasionally closing his eyes still resting on the edge of the box
11.30 the church bell tolls once and surprises Henry a little. He then proceeds to be fascinated by something in or on top of the box….maybe a fly?
11.40 The male is perched on one foot still on the edge of the box, calmly dozing and looking around periodically, even the background noises of builders and sirens don’t phase him.
11.42 The male performs some stretches and well-balanced yoga moves on the edge of the box and at one point appeared ready to fly off.
11.43 the male sits alert and more awake now.
11.49 the male is giving himself a pedicure now and remains alert
11.51 lots of what appears to be seagull calling, male very alert and watching and listening the flies off the box out of sight
11.52 no sign of either bird on either camera now
12.00 the bells tolls and still no sight or sound from either bird
12.15 still nothing to report except a fly buzzing around briefly in the nest box, even the builders seem to have stopped for lunch.
12.19 the roof camera pans about a bit looking for the birds but still no sign. Settles on a sunny turret with the flat calm sea as a nice backdrop. Still no activity in the nest box.
12.30 the bells tolls half past the hour, feels like the whole of Cromer, peregrines included have all nipped off for lunch somewhere!
12.36 I hear a peregrine and the external camera pans about again looking for them – one of them (possibly the female) can now been seen on the ridge of the tower roof. The nest box camera also pans and rests on peregrine on the ridge
12.39 the peregrine moves along ridge calling before flying off
12.41 nest box camera now on trefoil where the female (falcon) is sitting.
12.42 nest box camera back on empty box now
12.43 the female (falcon) remains perched on the trefoil
12.45 the female (falcon) still on trefoil now dozing periodically
12.54 the female (falcon) alert and looking all around and up
12.57 the female (falcon) continues to periodically looking about and then closes her eyes for a bit
13.00 the clock strikes one and the nest box remains empty.
13.00, start of another shift, Poppy sitting on a fleur de lis somewhere on the church. Henry not in the box, so no idea where he could be
13.08, How rude, Poppy turns her back on me and what a big back it is
13.19, Poppy being a bit more sociable turning back to the front so we can all see her
13.25, Poppy having a look above, don't know at who or what, then falls asleep
13.27, Poppy having a stretches and leans forward, making believe she about to leave, but no, she sits back down, looking at down at everyone below
13.35, think I've done something wrong, she's turned her back on me once again
13.58, Poppy returns back to the way she was at the start
14.31, Henry arrives on box
14.31-14.38, Poppy leaves and meets Henry in the box
14.38, Henry and Poppy in box, starts doing their Courtship ritual for all of us to watch
14.40, Henry leaves, leaving Poppy home alone. She got 20 mins to drop one out before my shift is over
14.52, Poppy fanning her wings out to capture some lovely cromer afternoon sun
14.57, Poppy moves to the front of the box, looks around, making me believe Henry was about somewhere but he didn't appear
15.00, end of shift for another day
15.00 Poppy at edge of nest box facing outwards
15.01 She turned to face inwards
15.02 Poppy flew off
15.44 Bird flies by on other camera, may have been a peregrine
15.47 Peregrine calls off camera
15.49 Peregrine calls off camera
15.51 Again more calling off camera
15.55 Peregrine flew by
15.56 Poppy on church pinnacle facing camera
15.58 Poppy on church pinnacle facing away
16.00 Both adult birds on church pinnacles but on different cameras
16.05 Poppy arrived into nest box
16.15 Poppy standing in nest box facing outwards
16.17 Poppy preens, meanwhile on other camera Henry still standing on church pinnacle
16.20 Poppy continues to preen
16.21 Henry flies off
16.28 Poppy goes to scrape but does not settle there
16.31 She stands near scrape /highly alert
16.52 Poppy preens
16.53 Henry joins Poppy in the nest box and there is much calling to each other
16.55 Henry flew off and calling eased and ceased
17.00 Poppy standing in nest box and looking outward
**EXTRA BLOG FROM THE CHURCH**
14.00 We arrive at the Church to find the tiercel sitting on the south east turret and the falcon sitting on a fleur de lis on the west side of the Church
14.10 We see a peregrine approaching high in the sky, its so high its hard to see with the naked eye
14.11 The falcon spots the high flying peregrine, the intruder circles and drops at speed towards the Church tower. The falcon and tiercel start calling, the incoming intruder is now at the same level as the female, it circles the tower a few times before the resident male gives chase. The male heads straight for the intruder and makes contact just above our heads, the intruder, which on closer inspection is an unringed juvenile, flys out towards the sea
14.14 The juvenile peregrine is back and again circles the tower, chaos ensues as the resident male again takes flight closely following the juvenile, the Church pigeons also take flight and the sky is filled with birds flying in all directions. The juvenile makes several orbits of the tower before settling on the ledge only a few feet from the falcon, the male dives towards the juvenile which departs at speed
14.16 All is quiet for a few minutes before the alarm calls of a peregrine ring out, the tiercel launches from the tower and heads out towards the sea, the falcon is calling from her lofty position on top of the Church, gulls are now joining in the calling and we spot the male just above Hotel de Paris dropping at speed towards the juvenile peregrine. They both disappear from view
14.17 Both birds are now back in view albeit a bit further out to sea when suddenly a third peregrine enters the arena, all 3 peregrines tussle in the air and some gulls join in the aerial display. The resident female is still on top of the Church calling.
14.18 Eventually the tiercel sees off the 2 intruding peregrines and returns to the tower and all is quiet again
Well Done. Highly entertaining as it should be