As I write, there are three very handsome, very healthy looking juvenile Peregrines taking it in turns to stand on the very edge of the nest box to flap their wings about in a furious fashion. I’m sure it’s also an anxiety inducing fashion for those of you watching the webcams.
Indeed it could well be that one of them takes to the skies before this blog is even finished. Or maybe they will just slip, fall and glide to the ground as the youngsters did last year and in plenty of other years before….. One way or the other it won’t be long now before these very active youngsters makes their first attempt at flight.
VDD spent most of yesterday afternoon on the platform roof – jumping up and back down without incident – whilst his brother VHD and sister VNC both spent time hopping on and off the perch. Nobody seems to have been for a run along the stone ledge yet though, or disappeared around the corner!
It’s hard to believe that this threesome only hatched on the 27th and 28th of April, just five short weeks or so ago. Back then they were teeny tiny, vulnerable, little white balls of fluff. In the intervening period they have grown so rapidly. It happens the same every spring and yet it’s still never ceases to amaze. This year it has happened so fast that summer hasn’t even had time to arrive! In fact if it wasn’t for the presence of Peregrine chicks it would have been hard to know this year whether it was spring at all given how disappointing the weather and the temperatures have been. Time does indeed fly.
These chicks, if we can still call them that, are now pretty much fully grown with full, adult-size skeletons, with mainly muscle bulk and plumage growth now to add to their stature. They look magnificent don’t they with their intense dark eyes and speckled rufous breasts? And they should be strong too given how well they’re being fed. The last 24 hours alone have brought meals of Swift, Pigeon and a possible Sand Martin amongst others. Whatever the species, it disappears quickly into hungry stomachs.
If we disregard last year (when the first chick departed the nest platform in a less than successful manner after 37 days) the first recorded flight of a youngster occurs generally between 38 and 41 days after the first hatch. Today is day 39. Over the last four years, counting backwards from 2023 to 2020, fledging day has been the aforementioned day 37, day 39, day 41, and day 39. So now is the time to watch if you want to see them take to the wing for the very first time, although for me the longer they wait the better. The more they have spent time being patient and practising flapping, building up their strength, the better and the more chance they will have of their first flight being a success rather than a clumsy glide and crash-landing.
Let’s hope they get it right first time, fly with intent, and come back safe and sound.
Sheffield Peregrines 