A land mark bird

A special bird this one. It's probably the first ever Peregrine to be ringed in Bedfordshire - I say probably, as I don't actually know for sure. Anyway, these birds have nested for the last two years at the same spot. Last year we think they failed just as they hatched the chicks. This year we had higher hopes!

In readiness for the coming breeding season we had a box installed. They loved it and used it straight away. The female soon layed some eggs - three; two normal ones and a bizarre white one! The white one soon went and we were left with two eggs and a sitting female. She sat on them right for ages and just as we started thinking she was sitting too long, they hatched! Good job we had a camera on the box too. All seemed to be going well after the first week, then we hit some bad weather and disaster happened - we lost one. A few more days passed and the last remaining chick was about ready to be ringed. As soon as we'd got her down it was apparent she wasn't looking good either. At that age she should have been screaming her head off and having her eyes open - this wasn't looking good. We got her back up to the box as quickly as possible and left them to it. Unfortunately only a few days later she passed away too.

I wonder what will happen next year? Hopefully we'll get at least one to fledging stage...