Photos show fastest bird in the world just after laying an egg at historic Derbyshire building

The falcon laid her first egg of the season around noon on Sunday, March 17 - a day earlier than last year. It was spotted by one of the Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project web cam watchers, Vic Pearson.

Peregrines have been nesting on the cathedral tower since 2006 and the famous Derby peregrine webcams enable viewers to watch them live.

Nick Brown, Enquiries Officer at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, who set up the Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project with Nick Moyes, said: “Females tend to lay a bit earlier as they get older so we were expecting to see an egg about now. With luck the female will lay a further three eggs to make a complete clutch, doing so at two to three days intervals. Once complete, incubation will then last about a month before the eggs start to hatch.”

Peregrines are the world’s fastest animal, able to reach speeds of up to 200mph when diving down onto prey. They nest in high places such as urban towers and rural cliffs and have excellent binocular vision allowing them to see prey from as far as 3km away.

The Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project is a partnership between Derby Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter, Derby City Council, and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, which manages the project.