Delight as peregrine falcon chick hatches in Worcester (From Worcester News)

Delight as peregrine falcon chick hatches in Worcester

5:17pm Saturday 3rd May 2008 in Local By Alicia Kelly, @aliciakellyWN #worcsnews

THE first of four eggs laid by a rare peregrine falcon in Worcester has hatched today.

The chick made its appearance at around 7.30am in a specially constructed nest at the top of St Andrews spire in Deansway.

The tiny white bird joins a nesting pair of falcons which made Worcester their home last year.

Delighted members of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), who have set up a marquee under the spire, watched the hatching and the chick's first feeding on a live nest camera.

Ross Lawford, peregrine officer RSPB said: "It was absolutely fantastic, very emotional.

"I was jumping up and down looking for someone to hug and there was no-one around."

Mr Lawford said he and two volunteers for the charity had pinpointed today as a possible time for the hatching.

They now hope the rest of the eggs, which were laid on Wednesday, March 26, will hatch too.

The chick will be kept warm by its mother in the nest for four or five weeks and could stay in Worcester for up to three months before its parents send it off to find its own territory.

Mr Lawford said: "It's amazing to see it. I've never seen it before.

"You never really have a live camera pointing into a nest with a peregrine so it's quite a privilege to witness this."

He will be playing the video footage to people at the spire over the next few days.

Peregrine falcons, which can reach speeds of more than 200mph, have become increasingly common in city centres in recent years, with tall buildings replacing the birds' traditional cliff face nesting ground.

At one point, in the 1950s, there were just 360 breeding pairs in the UK, but the figure has now risen to 1,500.