Plummeting Peregrines!

Peregrine Juvenile 009Last Friday Nick Brown and Maria, from the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, came to school to give an assembly about the Derby Cathedral Peregrine Falcons. The resident pair of falcons nest on a wooden platform erected high on the East side of the cathedral tower. This year they have laid four eggs and we are eagerly waiting for the chicks to hatch early in May.

They showed us lots of pictures of the peregrines and a video showing how Peregrine hunt their prey. We watched as the Peregrine plummeted in a ‘stoop’, reaching speeds of up to 200 miles an hour, towards its prey but narrowly missing the pigeon at the last minute. We learnt that the Peregrines’ diet consists only of birds which are caught on the wing.

Nick Brown also brought in a taxidermied juvenile Peregrine which sadly died after flying into a glass panelled roof shortly after fledging in 2009.

We had lots of questions to ask! If you want any more questions answering please leave a comment on this post and we will pass them on to Nick and Maria.

 


Comments

Plummeting Peregrines! — 1 Comment

  1. When the people came in to talk about Derby Cathedral Peregrines one of the birds was a falcon flyer, and it bumped into a building and broke its neck. So they put it on a stand so that people can look at it.

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