The Hawk and Owl Trust have a webcam set up looking into the box, which gives some amazing views of the birds. This year there are four chicks, plus a “teenager” from last year, as well as the two adults…. so I thought we stood quite a good chance of spotting at least one of them.

There’s two main vantage points for the box – we started off across the river, where you can get a great view as long as you have either a pair of binoculars or a very good zoom lens on your camera! While I was focusing on the nest box, my walking companion spotted one falcon sitting a bit higher up on the spire.

After a little while, we decided to head across the river and alongside the church – that’s not quite so easy to see, as it’s quite a steep angle to look up at, but you do get some clearer views, and maybe don’t need quite such a good zoom lens.

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There are currently three falcon chicks, who look totally different to the adult birds – the chicks are white, rather than the grey striped look of the adults.

Admittedly it’s not something you want to watch while eating – you get a ‘ringside seat’ of mealtimes when one of the adult birds brings food to share amongst the chicks. It is a fascinating watch, especially when you realise you’d walked past that church a few times, without even noticing the nest box on the side!

This photo was taken on a windy day in 2011 – we’d been staring at the Church for ages, before a kind passer-by pointed out where the Falcon was perching.

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