Salisbury Cathedral peregrine falcon chick spotted 90 miles from birthplace

Flo the peregrine falcon was named after Florence Nightingale Credit: Rose Newbold

A falcon which fledged from Salisbury Cathedral has set up a new home - 90 miles away from its birthplace.

Flo the peregrine falcon was one of four chicks born in one of Salisbury Cathedral's towers in 2021.

A pair of breeding falcons have returned to the cathedral each year since 2014 and have become so popular the cathedral sets up a webcam so people can watch their hatchlings grow. Last year, more than 300,000 people watched the webcam.

Each year the chicks are 'ringed' with coloured tags so people can easily identify them when they are sighted elsewhere in the country.

Flo captured on the webcam at Salisbury Cathedral in 2021 Credit: Salisbury Cathedral

Flo - who was named after Florence Nightingale to mark the work of the NHS during the pandemic - has now been spotted in Hertfordshire.

British Trust for Ornithology ringer Nigel Jones contacted the cathedral peregrine team to let them know that Flo had taken up residence at All Saints Church Tower in Hertford.

According to Hertfordshire ringer Barry Trevis, Flo has a mate and is now at the right age to start breeding. He has installed a nesting tray on the church to encourage the peregrine pair to settle.

It is not the first time Flo has been in the news. In 2021 her first attempt at fledging ended with a crash landing in the Salisbury Museum café gardens.

The fledgling was duly returned to the tower balcony to start all over again.

Flo with her rescuer Phil Sheldrake when she crash-landed in her first attempt to fledge the nest Credit: Kate Barker

Nigel Jones, who rings the cathedral falcons, said: “It is great to see the colour ring system working so well. It allows us to discover where the fledglings go and whether they survive. Around 70% of young peregrines die in their first year, so every success story is welcome.”

The Salisbury peregrines usually settle on the cathedral’s South Tower balcony around March.

So far 27 chicks, including one adopted orphan chick, have fledged from the tower since 2014 when the peregrines returned after an absence of 60 years.