The Wakefield Peregrine Project

The Wakefield
Peregrine Project

Registered charity: 1187885

The Peregrines Choose a New Site for 2025

Unfortunately, our peregrines have chosen not to perform for the live cameras this year.  Instead, they have chosen to nest on County Hall, about half a kilometre from the cathedral.

Although cathedral-nesting peregrines are often faithful to one site, it is quite normal for peregrines to alternate between favoured sites.

As the cathedral is still within the peregrines’ territory they won’t allow others to nest there.

We will continue to post as much information as we can on X and the Wakefield Peregrines facebook group.  We might decide to turn off our cameras this summer to preserve funds.

ZAA at York Minster

Some interesting news from York is that one of our young peregrines appears to be preparing to breed on York Minster.
 
ZAA, a female from Wakefield’s 2023 brood, has investigated the York University site but she has now settled on York Minster with TSZ, a young male that hatched on the minster in 2023.

News From Across The Border

Orange leg rings carrying alphanumeric codes have allowed us to receive news of sightings of Wakefield’s young peregrines after they have wandered off to find breeding territories of their own.
 
Previously, the most distant record had been of the female TVH, breeding in Cambridge, just under 200 km from Wakefield.
 
However, we have just heard about ZCA, a female from the 2023 brood and sister to ZAA at York.
 
ZCA is preparing to breed at a site in Fife, Scotland, 300 km from Wakefield.

The 2025 Season Begins

We are seeing the peregrines engaging regularly in courtship displays in the nestbox as they prepare for the 2025 breeding season.

The male is starting his eleventh season at Wakefield and this is the third one for the female. That’s how things are at the beginning of February but always remember that things can change dramatically if another peregrine sets its sights on this nestbox.

Ringing of the Chick

Just one of this year’s two eggs hatched and the chick was ringed on the 18th of May.

It has been fitted with an orange Darvic ring carrying the code ZVA.

We believe that the chick is probably a female but the weight wasn’t high enough for there to be certainty about that.

The Delayed Second Egg

The second egg was expected on Thursday morning, 21st March, but it did not arrive until Saturday afternoon, 23rd March, at around the time when we might have expected a third egg. 

It’s likely that we will never know what went wrong but one possibility is that an egg was deposited somewhere other than in the nestbox. 

We now have to watch to see whether this breeding season will get back on track.

T4H Settles in at Bradford

We have received news that T4H, a young male from Wakefield’s 2021 brood, has settled in at Bradford City Hall and has been seen copulating with the resident female. 

This is exciting news for followers of the Wakefield Peregrines and for developing peregrine project in Bradford, led by Paul Wheatley.

The First Egg of 2024

Following a day in which the female spent quite a bit of time in the box, she laid her first egg just after midnight on Tuesday, 19th March. 

This is the date on which she laid her first egg last year.