All Saints' Church Hertford

First Pair

In 2021 a pair of young Peregrine Falcons started to nest on our Church Tower Roof. With help/guidance from Barry Trevis (a Schedule One Permit holder), Stuart Fox and others, and with financial support from the Kiln Family Trust we set up a nest box on the tower roof and a webcam feeding to a screen and video recorder in the church. All the images of the 'new' pair come from this setup.

Unfortunately the original pair didn't breed in 2022 and subsequently left the tower.

New Pair

This year (2023), a new pair of Peregrine Falcons have taken up residence on our Tower Roof using the existing nest box. They have been visiting occasionally since Wednesday March 1st - often only one, but on occasions two - with one watching whilst the other 'works' at housekeeping duties such as the removal of moss and re-arranging the gravel to create a depression. Based on plumage, the female appears to be fully mature. As yet we've been unable to get a clear sight of her rings so we are unable to confirm who she is.

In recent days, both the smaller male and the bigger female have visited the nest site up to five different times per day - with the male being encouraged and overseen by the female to create a depression in the gravel for eggs to be laid and for the parents to share sitting on them. We have been advised that the female peregrine could lay her first egg around the beginning of April - with three or four days between the successive three eggs.

There will be short times once the eggs have been laid that neither of the male nor female will be on the eggs - as they search for food.

Video footage

We have extracted some footage from the video recorder and placed videos on our YouTube Channel. You can access them as a peregrine playlist.

Here is one of them:

We will post more information here shortly, including information on arrangements to view live footage in church etc.

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