Nottingham peregrine falcons lay first egg of spring 2016

A pair of peregrine falcons who regularly return to nest on a Nottingham Trent University roof have laid their first egg of 2016.

The birds have made the top of the university’s Newton building their home each nesting season since 2002.

In total 28 falcon chicks have fledged from the site – meaning the nest has made a big contribution to the welfare of the birds nationwide.

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Staff say the egg is thought to have been laid late on Sunday or early on Monday

In the 1960s the number of breeding pairs fell to just 360 in the UK after 80 per cent of the population were wiped out by pesticides and pollution.

Thanks to similar conservation efforts across the country that number is now around 1,500.

Each spring the nest’s progress is monitored by a live webcam which captures the hatching and development of the chicks to a worldwide audience.

Grant Anderson, the university’s environmental manager, said: “every year now we get typically over a million hits on the webcam and emails and phonecalls from around the world.

“We’ve tried to add to it each year so this year we have the introduction of a thermal imaging camera – to see if the falcons really do get as cold as they look.”

The nest is monitored by university staff and Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.