Manchester Peregrines Move House
Photo credit: Adrian Dancy
The property market may be in a slump but this has not stopped Manchester’s most famous birds of prey from moving to a new home.
After four years nesting in a secret location in the city centre, the Manchester peregrines have now taken up residence in a penthouse-style nest on a high-up ledge on the Grade II-listed CIS Tower.
At 118 metres tall, the CIS Tower – home of The Co-operative Financial Services, which is the second highest building in Manchester, making it a natural choice of home for the birds who favour living at high altitudes.
Rod Bulmer, Managing Director of Retail at CFS, says: “We fitted a special housing nest to encourage the peregrines to move in 5 years ago and we are very happy to hear our efforts have finally paid off. All of us at The Co-operative are really pleased to offer the peregrines and their future chicks a home”.
Although it is not possible to get a close-up view of the nest at the moment, experts believe the female is currently incubating a clutch of eggs in her new deluxe pad.
Peregrines are the jet fighters of the bird world and are listed in Guinness World Records as the world’s fastest animal with a flight speed of more than 200 miles per hour.
From Wednesday 28 April, visitors, shoppers and commuters will be given the opportunity to watch these spectacular birds fly above city centre at a special peregrine view point in Exchange Square.
Staff and volunteers from the RSPB will be on hand with power telescopes and binoculars everyday (weather/location availability permitting) from 11am to 6pm until the chicks fledge in early July.
Clare Reed, the RSPB’s people engagement officer in Manchester said: “Peregrines are one of the most fascinating birds of prey to watch in action. I’d recommend anyone interested in seeing these record-breaking birds in action to drop by at our viewpoint and see them in their full glory.”
The Manchester Peregrine project is run as part of the RSPB’s Date with Nature programme of events, which make rare and spectacular birds accessible for everyone to see.
Stay tuned for more information!
Posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 in News
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11 Comments. What do you think?
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Your comments
I was fascinated to read this, brilliant to know that these birds are thriving in urban settings, especially as we’ve been able to provide them with a secure nesting site.
A friend of mine told me that he’s has a peregrine nest very close to his office window at a factory in Trafford Park and he’s been able to watch them feeding their chicks.
by Kath Alexander at 9:40 am on May 5th, 2010
I was speaking to the girls in the Triangle who had telescopes to look at them and there were both nesting on top of the CIS sign, she said they used to nest on the Arndale tower but the Female will not live in a place they have lived before so they have clearly moved to the nearest highest point to them.
The lady told me to keep a eye out onn our intranet for it as they were keen to bring awareness to this and its clearly worked.
by Becky at 10:02 am on May 5th, 2010
Good….with Falcons
Hope the bank are helping them with their nest egg
by Dan Statham at 10:08 am on May 5th, 2010
oh this is amazing!!
I’m going to keep a eye out for them :0)
by b mistry at 12:27 pm on May 5th, 2010
Really glad to hear they are back, I visited Miller St a few times last year and spent a good hour on one occasion watching them at the nest in the C of CIS on the tower I was amazed at how many people hadn’t seen or heard them.
by Sandra Stokes at 2:02 pm on May 5th, 2010
Has anyone considered puting a webcam or two on the CIS Tower.
by Carl Ryder at 10:31 am on May 6th, 2010
Hi Carl,
Ben here from CFS.
This is something that is being looked into with the RSPB at the moment, though we have to be careful not to cause too much disruption as the female is incubating her eggs.
We’ll keep you posted on further developments!
by Ben at 11:26 am on May 6th, 2010
Thanks RSPB, had a look through your telescope on friday, amazing!! keep it up, its such a privilage to see these birds in action.
by Paula at 9:59 pm on May 9th, 2010
I was lucky enough to see the peregrine in flight over the Arndale yesterday. The RSPB reps told me they don’t have a photograph and I wondered if the one supplied here by Adrian Dancy was of the actual CIS tower bird or not. If so, can anyone contact Adrian to see if he’d be willing to give the photo to the RSPB to help in their campaigning?
by Michelle Bennett at 8:23 am on May 14th, 2010
Hi there! I am the lady who is managing the RSPB Peregrine Project this year. It is fantastic to read that so many of you are behind us, and what a brilliant location for the peregrines this year! Come down and see them through the telescopes in Exchange square if you haven’t done so already.
So just a quick heads up then; we did try to get a camera which was already positioned on the CIS nest working this year, but alas, it was a bit too old. It’s too late in the season now to put a webcam on without diturbing the female incubating her eggs but hopefully this could be something we could get set up in the Autumn!
Adrian Dancy takes fantastic photographs of the CIS peregrines – and yes the photo above is one of the pair! We will be getting more photographs to show people in the Square very soon so watch this space…
by Clare Reed at 11:46 am on May 14th, 2010
WE have followed the Manchester Peregrines for the past 4 years and go down to exchange square in the breeding season to look at these fantastic birds through their telescope the kids love it, my friend also has a fantastic picture of one of last years chicks, who landed on his window ledge on his apartment, long may the Manchester Peregrines reign.
by Rachell Lucas at 12:32 pm on May 17th, 2010
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