Prepare to be captivated: Woking’s peregrine falcons have hungry mouths to feed and we can peek inside their nesting box to see the spectacle. It’s thanks to a webcam feed on the Woking Peregrine Project website. You can even hear the chicks chattering!

Peregrine falcons are birds of prey, feeding on medium-sized birds and small mammals. They are the largest resident falcon in the British Isles, similar in size to the crow. Peregrines have been breeding successfully in Woking for nine years, although the parents have changed over the years as birds died and were replaced naturally by new nesters.

The nesting box was installed by the Woking Peregrine Project (WPP) in January 2016 on the eastern side of Export House in the town centre.

One of my most enjoyable pastimes this past week has been watching the youngsters being fed: “dad” brings food he has caught (usually smaller birds) to the nest box where “mum” tears off pieces and inserts them in the chicks’ beaks. As I write, three chicks have hatched from the clutch of four eggs. The intact fourth egg is still in the nest but it appears the mother has given up on it as she is no longer incubating it.

You may get a live show by the parent peregrines if you stand in Jubilee Square and look up towards the eastern face of Export House where the nest box is located.

Peregrines were traditionally found on sea cliffs and upland crags. They are renowned for their speed, reaching over 320 km/h (200mph) when diving to pounce on prey, making the peregrine the fastest member of the animal kingdom in the UK.

The traditional name for a male of any species of falcon, including the peregrine, is a tiercel while the female is called a falcon. The tiercel is a third smaller than the falcon and it has been suggested that the term is derived from an Old French word tercual, derived from the Latin tertius meaning “third”. Peregrines were on the brink of extinction in the 1960s, at least in lowland England. Their population decline was partly due to due to the impact of pesticides in the food chain, which thinned their egg shells. In addition, peregrines were subject to illegal persecution for fear of competition with the interests of rearing game and sport-racing birds.

Despite being endangered, these spectacular birds have regularly graced the skies above Woking since 2001.

A large part of their recovery has been their relatively recent colonisation of high-rise buildings, which to a Peregrine are a good substitute for their natural habitats of cliff faces and crag sites. Improved legislation and protection has also helped. However, they are still persecuted and these birds are illegally killed to prevent predation on game birds and racing pigeons.

Woking Peregrine Project webcam will show the chicks developing from downy bundles into their juvenile plumage. In six weeks or so, we can expect to see Woking’s peregrine parents teaching their offspring how to fly, hunt and eventually fledge the nest, perhaps leaving Woking to start their own families on buildings elsewhere.

If the chicks aren’t visible when you look at the live nest feed it will be because they are being kept snug under “mum”.  But keep looking and you may witness the next dinner time, which is a fascinating sight.