University seeks names for peregrine chicks hatched on roof
The public are being asked to name a brood of peregrine falcon chicks which have hatched on the roof of a university building.
Their parents have nested on top of Nottingham Trent University’s Newton building, in Nottingham, England, for the past decade.
This year four chicks have hatched under the watchful eye of a high-resolution webcam broadcasting a live feed from the nest, which is watched by people from as far afield as Australia, Saudi Arabia and Argentina, the university said.
The first egg was laid on Sunday March 16, and hatched on April 23, with the last egg hatching some three days later.
The birds have now been ringed by experts from Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, and three have been identified as females.
The smallest chick is still too little to determine its gender, but the university said that due to the good hunting weather it was getting enough food and starting to catch up to its siblings in size.
Members of the public have been invited to submit name suggestions on the university’s webcam blog, with a unisex name requested for the smallest chick.
Grant Anderson, Nottingham Trent University’s environmental manager said it was fantastic each year to watch the drama of the peregrine pair and their young.
“Every year there’s some sort of drama. It’s never really clear sailing. This year, three eggs hatched on one day and the other egg didn’t hatch for the best part of a week, and we’d given up on it, and then it hatched.
“We’ve got a little fourth chick, it’s gradually catching up, though it’s still struggling. But if the weather stays as it is, all four should be fine.”
Peregrine falcons are traditionally found on rocky sea cliffs and upland areas, but are also known to nest on tall buildings in cities.
With the help of legal protection and control of pesticides that damaged the birds, their population has recovered from lows in the 1960s.
