The Wakefield
Peregrine Project
Registered charity: 1187885
New Nest Box
At the start of autumn, the old nestbox was replaced with a smart new box.
We hope that this box will be more durable than the previous version, making maintenance more straightforward.
Since its installation, the two birds have visited the box and they have been preparing nest scrapes.
This bodes well for the 2026 breeding season.
Let’s hope that the brids will be more successful than they were in 2025.
The 2025 Season
Although the Wakefield peregrines failed in their attempt at breeding on County Hall, the good news from Scotland is that the female ZCA, from Wakefield’s 2023 brood, bred successfully at a quarry site.
She raised three young and they were fitted with metal BTO rings and orange plastic rings.
The youngsters and their orange ring codes are: ZN4 (male), ZD4 (male), and ZC4 (female).
At York, ZAA, another female from the 2023 brood, was busy early in the season but did not breed there.
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
News From Across The Border
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.
