High above the ancient stone floor of Salisbury Cathedral, in a landing at the foot of the spire, a curious secular ceremony was taking place.
Two cardboard boxes containing three creatures, white and fluffy but with fearsome-looking beaks and talons, were brought in. The animals – young peregrine falcons – were measured, weighed and fitted with bright identification rings.
A few feathers flew, the falcons nibbled at their handlers but no harm was done to birds or humans and within minutes they were back outside in their nest.
The cathedral peregrines, which nest on the balcony of the south tower, became an internet hit during Covid thanks to a carefully placed webcam and continue to be a huge springtime draw for the great Wiltshire church.
But the project is also seen as increasingly important by conservationists because the birds are regarded as being under threat from a diverse range of dangers, from gamekeepers to pigeon fanciers, falconers who would love to get their hands on a young juvenile British bird – and avian flu.
“There’s been a resurgence in peregrine numbers,” said Nigel Jones, from the British Trust for Ornithology, who carried out the ringing. “But they do face multiple threats. It’s likely the population will fall again. This is one way of keeping an eye on them.”
The operation on Wednesday began with a twisty climb up 332 steps through the bell chamber to the landing known as eight doors, 68 metres above ground level. Above is the interior of the 123-metre high spire and a spider’s web network of medieval scaffolding.
Granville Pictor, a peregrine expert from Wiltshire Ornithological Society, was sent out to gently encourage the adult birds away and the three chicks – two females, one male – were carried to a table set up beneath the spire.
Phil Sheldrake, the cathedral’s nature conservation adviser, held the birds while Jones wielded a pair of pliers to ring the birds.
“Actually, the bigger birds of prey such as goshawks and peregrines are easier to handle,” said Jones. “They tend to be quite docile. It’s the smaller ones such as kestrels and hobbies that squirm and have tiny sharp talons – they are horrible to handle. The peregrine chicks haven’t sussed they could do you real damage.”
The birds were, in turn, placed in a bag-for-life to be weighed and, as expected, the females were heavier than the male.
Outside the scolding, persistent rehk-rehk-rehk alarm call of the birds’ mother could be heard as she whizzed around the spire. “They scream a bit but soon come back and feed their chicks,” said Jones.
Pictor and the cathedral clerk of works, Gary Price, had the less glamorous job of squeezing out on to the parapet where the birds’ nest with dustpans and brushes to clean off feathers and other detritus that can block drains, leading to water pouring into the cathedral.
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They came back in with the head of a teal duck that the peregrines had feasted on. The falcons’ prey includes woodpeckers, finches, kingfishers and pigeons. They also hunt at night, helped by the cathedral being lit up.
Peregrines, the fastest animals on the planet, capable of hitting 100mph when diving, are known to have bred at the cathedral in the 19th century. They disappeared from the tower in 1953 and returned in 2014.
Former Salisbury chicks include Peter, born in 2014. He was shot, rehabilitated and has raised broods in Hampshire. Aveline, a 2016 female chick, was spotted near Milton Keynes in 2017. A 2020 chick called Osmund, one of the lockdown chicks, took up residence on the Guernsey coast in 2022.
The new trio of three-week-old chicks, all given names – Rex, Rose and Lily – with coronation associations, are expected to remain on the balcony for another three weeks, flapping their wings to strengthen them and building up enough power to fly up on to the balcony parapet.
Once fledged, the juveniles will stay around the cathedral for at least a month, learning survival and hunting skills from their parents before striking out on their own.
