Peregrine chick hatches on Cathedral Tower
It’s no easy job hatching – the whole process takes around 72 hours from pip (when the shell is first broken) to hatch. Generally that happens around 32 days after incubation begins – and incubation begins when the last egg was laid. We’ve kept a record of each egg’s arrival and timing and guess what? It was bang on time:
| First egg | 22 March | 10.26 |
| Second egg | 25 March | 02.27 |
| Third egg | 27 March | 02.00 |
| Fourth egg | 29 March | 11.49 |
So far, so textbook…
Newly hatched peregrines weigh in at about one-and- half ounces and double their weight in just over a week – that goes up to tenfold after three weeks. So expect to witness lots of feeding on the webcam.
The new chicks are covered with fluffy white down, and it will be at least three weeks before they get feathers, and around five weeks before they fledge. So the Tower balcony, after a long spell of being very quiet and serene, will now become incredibly busy and noisy…and rather competitive.
You can watch live on the Salisbury Cathedral webcam
